Eldorado: the trailer for the Arte series on the sniffer plane scandal

Jérémie Renier and Karim Leklou star in this industrial thriller inspired by one of the biggest political-financial scandals in French history.

What if we could detect oil deposits from the air?

This is the crazy promise that led to one of the most resounding political-financial scandals of the Fifth Republic. With Eldorado, Arte returns to the “sniffer planes” affair, in a series imagined by Tarek Haoudy and Nacim Mehtar, and directed by Louis Farge.

In the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis, a Belgian aristocrat and an Italian inventor claim to have developed a machine capable of locating natural resources beneath the Earth’s surface. Their invention soon attracts the attention of Elf Aquitaine, as France seeks to secure its supply of black gold.

The synopsis takes us back to 1976. “Two iconoclastic inventors go to Gabon to test the Omega machine, capable of detecting water under the surface of the earth using gravitational waves. Count Toledo, a penniless Belgian aristocrat, and Bonamici, his elusive man of science, are convinced: they have created the invention of the future. Soon, the desert plains will become as green as a Swiss valley. Back in Europe, Toledo starts looking for financial support. He only receives ridicule, until a strange lawyer suggests his name to the powerful oil group Elf Aquitaine. Léonard Sarda, a despised executive of the French flagship, must verify the reliability of Omega to find deposits… and divert it from its humanist aims, only black gold counts. great principles But to face the pressure from Elf Aquitaine, he can count on the support of his daughter, Iris De Toledo.”

Carried in particular by Jérémie Renier and Karim Leklou, this fresco combines industrial thriller, satire and romantic story to tell a case where the lure of gain ultimately prevailed over reason.

Eldorado will be available on Arte.tv from November 11, 2026, then broadcast on Arte on November 19 and 26 in prime time.