La Syndicaliste

La Syndicaliste

1/12/2023 2h 2m 6.7/10

Overview

The true story of the Irish national Maureen Kearney- head tradeunion representative-turned-whistleblower of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse. After denouncing top-secret deals that shook the sector, Kearney’s life is suddenly turned upside-down when she is violently assaulted in her own house.

Director

Jean-Paul Salomé

Top Billed Cast

Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert

Maureen Kearney

Alexandra Maria Lara

Alexandra Maria Lara

Julie Depret

Marina Foïs

Marina Foïs

Anne Lauvergeon

Pierre Deladonchamps

Pierre Deladonchamps

Chief Warrant Officer Nicolas Brémont

Grégory Gadebois

Grégory Gadebois

Gilles Hugo

François-Xavier Demaison

François-Xavier Demaison

Jean-Pierre Bachmann

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

7/22/2023

6/10

Isabelle Huppert is quite impressive here as the human resources executive Maureen Kearney. Determined to work to secure decent working conditions for tens of thousands of staff working for the French Nuclear power enterprise AREVA. Her work doesn't exactly make her popular, but when her CEO ally Anne Lauvergeon (Marina Foïs) is forced out by political manoeuvring at the Élysée Palace she is faced with a much more hostile management. Pretty soon she fears that she is becoming the victim of a conspiracy and that comes to an head when her husband (Grégory Gadebois) and the police are summoned to their home where she has been tied to a chair and brutally assaulted. It's at this point that the police investigation takes rather a surreal turn, when investigating officer Brémont (Pierre Delasonchamps) starts to suspect she made it all up - and she is duly tried for that crime... To be honest, this isn't as good a film as it could have been. It's a bit too wordy and for me, anyway, way too much time is spent on the preamble, establishing her credentials, and not enough time putting the meat on the bones of this most curious of conspiratorial narratives: the trading of technologies between the French and Chinese companies that may have undermined their own industry and put many jobs, if not national energy security, at risk. The police investigation and the rather rushed developments thereafter that affected this this lady for five years afterwards are also rather undercooked. It's a pretty savage indictment of the French justice system, the policing procedures and it makes you realise that when the law is against you, you need a very good lawyer - which she certainly did not have - if you are to have any chance of survival in the court room! Certainly worth a watch, though - just a shame it didnt dig deeper.

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