We watched "Servant of the people", the series worn by Volodymyr Zelensky

• The first season of

  Servant of the People,

   the series that propelled Volodymyr Zelensky to the head of Ukraine is available on Arte.tv.

• In this satirical comedy, Volodymyr Zelensky, then 37 years old, plays a history teacher elected, against all odds, president of Ukraine.

• A premonitory role which earned the actor to actually be elected President of Ukraine.

Watching

when Ukraine has just been invaded by the Russian army is a strange experience to say the least.

While Volodymyr Zelensky acquired in a few days the stature of a hero at the head of a country at war, he is in the first season of the series available on Arte.tv only a troublemaker, at the crossroads of a

 and a Borat.

In this fiction produced by Kvartal 95 Studio, founded by Volodymyr Zelensky, the actor, then 37 years old, embodies a kind of magnificent

named Vassili Goloborodko, an honest history teacher, forced divorced father, following his separation , to move back to his parents in Kiev.

A sweet, clumsy dreamer

If he spends his nights dreaming of Plutarch, he appears in the first sequences as a teenager incapable of preparing breakfast or ironing his shirt.

At the high school in which he works, he perpetually attracts the wrath of the headmistress.

If the slightly awkward and naive sweet dreamer character is similar to 

, the family scenes, which borrow the codes of the family sitcom, are a bit outdated.

Vassili Goloborodko flourishes only in the classroom where his students watch him with boundless admiration as he spouts idealistic discourses on democracy and humanism.

While he virulently criticizes the government plagued by a corrupt elite, he is filmed without his knowledge by his students.

An antihero propelled president of Ukraine

The video goes viral on social media, racking up millions of views.

The teacher obtains the money necessary for his registration in the presidential elections of Ukraine thanks to a

campaign led by his students.

His anti-system speech won over the voters, and against expectations, he was elected president in the first minutes of the first episode.

"I didn't think I would say that one day: I'm proud of you my son," his father told him, extremely surprised.

The arrival of this antihero in business delights the corrupt oligarchs in place, who hope to make their puppet.

The discovery of the mysteries of power by this simple history professor propelled overnight to the top of the state evokes the character of

.

This idealist, inspired by dreamlike visits from historical figures such as Lincoln, Louis XVI or Ivan the Terrible, will gradually try to break with presidential pomp and impose his style of

.

Combining absurd humor and acid satire, the scenes showing the crooked oligarchs offer the most scathing replies.

"An uncontrollable democracy, I had not had such a rush of adrenaline for a long time", revels for example one of them.

Vassili Goloborodko will undertake to clean up the political class in place.

A huge success, taken off the air in Russia

Broadcast from 2015 to 2019 in Ukraine,

, a satirical comedy in three seasons, triumphed over 1+1, the country's second largest channel behind Inter.

The fiction, posted free on YouTube, is to date the most successful television series in Ukraine with more than 20 million cumulative viewers.

In Russia, on the other hand, 

broke the record for the shortest television broadcast, after three episodes broadcast in a single evening.

One of the broadcast episodes contains a play on words, difficult to translate, which associates the Hublot brand and Vladimir Poutine, which makes Russian speakers laugh.

The satire also makes fun of Ukraine's geopolitical position.

Is Vasili Goloborodko “a man of the West or of the Kremlin”, asks one of the Ukrainian politicians for example as he comes to power.

The series is removed from the antenna.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian production is a hit to the point that Netflix is ​​buying the rights for certain territories.

In France, only the first season of 23 episodes has been available on Arte.tv since last November.

A success that propels Volodymyr Zelensky to the head of the Ukrainian state

France almost elected Coluche, the United States elected Ronald Reagan, from reality to fiction, there is only one step!

In 2018, Volodymyr Zelensky, relying on the notoriety of this premonitory role, entered the Ukrainian political arena within the Servant of the People party, a name borrowed from the television series.

Ivan Bakanov, lawyer and CEO of the Kvartal 95 studio, which produces fiction, takes over the management.

The series gives Volodymyr Zelensky the image of a politician with integrity.

His team makes no mistake about it and cheerfully mixes real images and the series during his presidential campaign where he embraces the same themes as his fictional

: the fight against corruption, anti-elite discourse.

So much so that the third season, which aired just before the election, sparked intense discussion about whether the series should be considered part of the campaign or not.

In 2019, the very popular producer, presenter, actor and humorist Volodymyr Zelensky won the presidential election against the outgoing head of state, Petro Poroshenko.

While the fictional character won the election with 67% of the vote, Volodymyr Zelensky was elected with 73.2% of the vote.

The "clown" now takes the leading role, in a drama, alas, very real.

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• Culture

• netflix

• art

• Vladimir Poutine

• Sitcom

• Volodymyr Zelensky

• War in Ukraine

• Russia

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