In this image taken by Agence France Presse photographer Ludovic Marin, it almost looks like a fictional film. There is an outdated flavor of Orient Express, a little Hitchcock side too, as in the famous North by Northwest with Cary Grant (Death on the heels in French).
In the image, we first see the three men. They are all smiles, in casual clothes, a sign of their complicity. Olaf Scholz is in jeans and a shirt. Mario Draghi in a sweater. Emmanuel Macron in a shirt, but with a broken collar. No tie suit. They are all seated in a compartment, rather luxurious and elegant, curtains with pompoms and quality wood, around a solid wood table. The curtains are in the colors of Ukraine, with yellow and blue stripes.
Emmanuel Macron is in the center, he seems to chair the meeting. We see it all the more because he is in a white shirt, where the Italian and German leaders are dressed in dark colors. The French president also has his right arm outstretched and seems to be showing something with a pen. As if showing the way. He chairs the Council of the European Union, directs the discussion. And it carries the voice of the three great founding powers of the Union, the three leaders of Western Europe. Lines of flight, diagonals are omnipresent in the image. They give the impression of movement, that of the train. And that of history.
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There is also a scent of mystery in the photo. The train compartment is cut off from the world, no window to the outside, everything is opaque. Curtains, television screen. We imagine that this meets security requirements for this high-risk trip. We also imagine that the train is rolling towards kyiv.
Behind Emmanuel Macron, a wall clock indicates midnight 55, almost 1am. The lighting is obviously artificial. But we have the impression of a suspended time, of a place impossible to really identify, a kind of black box.
The three leaders are therefore at work, in the middle of the night, to prepare for the trip to kyiv. On their work table, we see a file of Mario Draghi with the Ukrainian flag. There are also two cell phones. Given their arrangement on the table, they are undoubtedly those of the Italian president of the council and of the French president. Three glasses of water sit enthroned on the table: no alcohol when you are at work. And a small tube of hydroalcoholic gel is placed in the middle, between the three glasses of water. A way of reminding us that we must remain cautious, that the Covid pandemic has not said its last word.
In short, this photo is cleverly composed. We therefore imagine that the three leaders worked part of the night, before a brief rest and the arrival at the kyiv station around 9 am French time. And before a busy agenda with the Ukrainian presidency.