Defense Europe’s awakening

Produced by

Seventine

Leading French distributor

LCP - Assemblée Nationale

Production year2026

Programme formatOne-off

GenresDocumentary

Runtime 52 min

Synopsis

February 28, 2025: The electric confrontation between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky shakes Europe’s security architecture to its core. Forty-eight hours later, European leaders gather in London for an emergency summit. The verdict is brutal: the order inherited from the post-Cold War era is collapsing. In the face of American disengagement, the illusion of perpetual peace fades away. For our sharp-eyed experts, this pivotal shift—which triggered Europe's rearmament—is no sudden surprise: it was preceded by numerous warning signs. Beyond the immediate shock, our commentators delve into the deep-rooted origins of this strategic turning point, tracing the clues and weak signals that could have allowed us to predict the crisis we face today, and perhaps, anticipate the conflicts of tomorrow. Today, current events are accelerating dramatically, validating these analyses. Swarms of drones strike Lithuania, forcing Baltic heads of state into bunkers, while Iran threatens to ignite a conflict far beyond the Middle East. Faced with this tectonic shift in global geopolitics, the French Parliament has just urgently voted a historic €36 billion budget extension through 2030 for its Military Programming Law, aiming to "respond to the acceleration of the threat." This documentary asks a crucial, existential question: Is France truly ready for war? Through the insights of top experts and immersive footage—from the titanic joint military exercise Orion 2026 to the armored vehicle production lines at KNDS—the film reveals how armed conflict is once again becoming a tangible reality.