Sarkozy-Gaddafi: The Scandal of All Scandals

Yannick Kergoat's 2025 documentary recounts the fourteen-year investigation by the Mediapart journalists Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske. It began with a mysterious email carrying documents concerning Ziad Takieddine, led to more than a hundred and sixty articles from 2011 onward, and eventually to the opening of judicial proceedings in the Libyan financing case. The film builds, step by step, the claim that Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 campaign was financed by Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Its title comes from Sarkozy's own answer to the press, that nobody can make sense of it. Kergoat's method is built precisely on refuting that sentence, making a flow of money that looks impenetrable legible. The documentary was produced by Mediapart, meaning the outlet conducting the investigation is also the narrator, and what that means for impartiality is worth holding in mind. The legal process is ongoing and parts of the allegations have not been settled by a court. Who it's for: viewers who follow investigative journalism documentaries and corruption cases in French politics. Who it's not for: anyone who will struggle to track complex financial detail, or who is wary of an investigating outlet narrating its own story.