Clément Erhardy

Film

This film explores the scenarios studied, as well as the defence foresight methodologies and techniques used by the French armed forces to train for future conflicts.

In what is presented as a speculative documentary, we follow a military training exercise in Cahors: the city is under siege by a proxy militia and must be liberated by a coalition of French, British and Nepalese forces. Using board games, video game simulators and field training, since 2023 our armed forces have been playing out a war that has not yet taken place.

Firstly, through a board game run by the Army’s Future Combat Command, which, every six weeks, trains soldiers in current scenarios using maps and tokens.

Then via VR-Forces, the simulator used by various international armies, including France, to test several versions of a planned operation.

And finally, through urban training exercises in which soldiers act out a full-scale scenario in which France is at war on its own soil.

Each of these training methods serves as a tool for foreshadowing the future that is being prepared for. They present scenes from a future imagined by the French army in such a way that they are almost indistinguishable from reality.

Clément Erhardy

Découvrir le profil

Clément Erhardy is a French artist and filmmaker and graduate of the beaux-arts de Paris. His work explores the tensions between documentary, fiction and digital simulation. He interrogates imaging technologies as tools of perception and projection, interweaving memories, fables and scientific studies. His visual installations challenge dominant representations and propose alternative ways of seeing. He has exhibited in France and Germany, works as a 3D and VFX artist, and has received support from the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg. His theoretical work has been published in the journal *Immersion*.

Production

Credits