After three extensions of the Brexit deadline, the UK will be leaving the EU on 31 January 2020. During the ensuing "transition period", the UK will remain in the Single Market and "aligned" on EU regulations while negotiating the terms of their new relationship with the EU...
Ahead of these negotiations - to be finalised by 31 Dec. 2020 - we look back on eighteen months of tense negotiations of the original Withdrawal Agreement, in the footsteps of Michel Barnier, the chief EU Brexit negotiator, as he hammered out the original Withdrawal Agreement .
The film takes us right into the heart of the EU following closely the many twists and turns of the "biggest divorce in history".
Barnier's famous reminder still rings true..."The clock is ticking"...
A unique and privileged access behind the scenes of these negotiations helps us understand what’s at stake. The film also reveals the extraordinary personality of a man, sometimes straight and inflexible, at other times fragile and human. Will Barnier manage to achieve an orderly, amicable UK exit or will there be a No Deal outcome, with a potentially chaotic departure? Until 31 December 2020, everything is possible...
THE PRESS:
"From the voters’ hangover in the aftermath of the vote in the UK, to the successive rejections of Theresa May’s Brexit deal in Parliament, Alain de Halleux's documentary deals with a daunting challenge: turning months of laborious negotiations in the corridors of the European Commission in Brussels into a clear and comprehensible story while closely following the team of the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier ...
At no time does De Halleux lose the thread of the story, nor the attention of the viewer ... "
(Pauline Bock, Télérama "TT", 15/04/19)
Videos, in order of appearacne
Button 1: 95' version
Button 2: Part 1 of the 2 x 52' version
Button 3. Part 2 of the 2 x 52' version
Button 4: 59' edit
Festivals and Awards:
2019: short-listed for the 71st PRIX ITALIA, category TV Documentary (Rome 23-28 Sept.)