The whole world has been tearing it apart since Russia invaded Ukraine. Series servant of the people has the particularity of being played, directed, written and produced by a certain Volodymyr Zelensky, star in his country for 20 years thanks to his shows, his sketches and his victory in the show Dance with the stars. Between 2015 and 2019, 20 million Ukrainians watched this program, making it the biggest TV hit. The comedian then became president, like his character. Today, he is a national hero, a symbol of resistance against Vladimir Putin.
In France, Arte won the rights to servant of the people. The first season of the fiction has been online since November on Arte.tv, where it had not aroused great interest… until the outbreak of the war on February 24. “It has become one of the essential series. Three million views to date! Before the start of the conflict, it was watched less than other series”, indicates Boris Razon, the editorial director of Arte France.
“It helps to understand how this fiction was able to crystallize the expectations of a people in relation to a devalued, corrupt political class, in the Russian orbit. In addition, it’s funny, it’s really worth a look. “
Boris Razon, editorial director of Arte Francefranceinfo
servant of the people is one of the many Arte contents devoted to the situation in Ukraine. Through its reports, its documentaries, its magazines, the channel and its digital version shed very broad light on this war, its causes and its consequences. “This is the main mission of the channel: to help French and German and European citizens to understand the world and this crisis which touches the very heart of Europe”.
“It is essential for us to give to see and to understand with our specificity, that is to say a European look.”
Boris Razon, editorial director of Arte Francefranceinfo
Arte uses different formats to deal with the war in Ukraine. “We do it through our newspaper, our reports, and we have launched a brand new format from a 30-year-old program: The underside of the cardswhich went daily. Broadcast every evening at 8:50 p.m., The underside of the cards, the essentials “highlights, with maps, one of the key aspects of the war, be it the potential involvement of Syria, the question of wheat…”, announces Boris Razon.
Arte has rescheduled its evening of Tuesday March 15 to broadcast a portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky, The man from kyiv. It recounts his journey and contains two interviews with the Ukrainian president, one carried out in May 2021, the other a few days after the start of the war. “This documentary makes it possible both to trace the history of Volodymyr Zelensky and to shed light on what Ukraine was seeing and that we perhaps did not want to see. The issues at stake in this country in fact went beyond the sole Ukraine, exceeded Russian ambition and affected the whole of Europe, even the whole world”.