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CRITIQUE — While its committed dimension will surely prevent it from flirting with the greatest, “Goliath” still lives up to its name. The long time taken to produce the film allowed Frédéric Tellier (Affaire SK1 , The Men in the Shadows, Save or Perish…) to conduct his investigation and strike a major blow, especially since his work arrives at the right time. Whether on the judicial, political or societal level, it reveals the influence peddling that takes place in the shadows of interests.
If the subject of ecology has been chosen as a backdrop here, this film is as much an opening as a lesson, which would be good to remember in many other respects.
“Inspired by true events”
We follow the story of Patrick (Gilles Lellouche), a determined lawyer in search of meaning, who defends a family victim of the damage caused by pesticides, against a giant of the agrochemical industry. On the one hand, environmental activism is embodied by France (Emmanuelle Bercot); on the other, lobbying in favor of pesticides is embodied by Mathias (Pierre Niney).
Patrick, who got involved in the case following the death of a young farmer suffering from cancer, will have a hard time convincing the courts of the link between exposure to pesticides and the onset of the disease. But the more he is confronted with the agrochemical industry and its manipulation strategies, the more he will take the fight to heart, also meeting with significant support. By force of circumstances, he becomes the spokesperson for a whole section of the French population, hurt by an agricultural policy designed for profitability, and silenced by lobby communication. Together, they fight against the company “Phytosanis”, which for once, will be forced to go all the way to prevent its secrets from being revealed.
Explicitly fiction “inspired by true events”, it is easy to guess that the film actually tells the story of glyphosate by referring to companies such as Monsanto. Ironically, Frédéric Tellier specifies from the beginning that the resemblances with existing or former characters are neither unintentional nor purely coincidental.
The actors are good without being excellent. The dialogues are realistic. The jerky shots are sometimes nauseating. The images are nothing incredible, but the whole thing breathes deep authenticity, and that's all that matters to convey the underlying message.
“In this fight, they don't have the same weapons”
At the beginning of the story, Mathias is neither more nor less than a good communicator, adept at verbal jousting and a professional at manipulation: a lobbyist. He makes his fortune by defending body and soul the interests of the company that hires him, promoting the use of pesticides in France.
But when the “tetrazine” scandal breaks out and the media offer Patrick the opportunity to speak for farmers, the lobbyist begins a perilous fight against the black robe. To do this, he will play all his cards one by one, testing the lawyer's bravery and loyalty more and more.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Frédéric Tellier, in doing so, skillfully draws a whole range of manipulative techniques used by the “string pullers”, ranging from simple debate to corruption, including threats, organized discredit, flooding social networks thanks to “bots” and “trolls”, denial of approved studies, illegality… The character of Mathias also draws on sprawling networks, willingly shaking hands with ministers, scientists or lawyers to achieve his ends. The director thus highlights the near-omnipresence of conflicts of interest and the crucial importance… of money.
In front of him, Patrick has few weapons. That being said, his tenacity and perseverance will end up attracting the wrath of the giant. As he rightly says: “Does that mean I scare you ?” Furthermore, Frédéric Tellier transmits with great authenticity the simplicity and humanity of the “opposite camp”, the environmentalists, the French people.
“People are lost, they must be guided”
The way the fight is depicted through this film teaches us three essential things: that we live in a world where the lure of gain often gets the better of humanity; that for him, the elite of a country can sink far into the abject; and finally, that the people can only fight if they are united.
A moral that can be applied to many other subjects than that of ecology. This is what Frédéric Tellier lets us understand, notably through the dialogues of the film. Although his script was completed in May 2019, the filming then took place during the Covid-19 epidemic, the director did not hesitate to mention it several times, almost implying that it was the same problem. Here and there, he slips in clever nods to what we experienced in 2021. The opposition (here environmentalist), for example, he had it “condemn with the greatest firmness” by one of his characters, whose real-world alter ego the astute viewer will guess without too much trouble. And this, at the risk of being accused of the all-purpose “conspiracy theory”, also mentioned.
“You know, Mathias will justify himself towards the end of the film to convince his colleague to persevere in the profession, some French people believe that the Minister of Health is close to the pharmaceutical laboratories that produce vaccines, […] others believe that Man has never walked on the Moon, others that planes spread poison in the air for some unknown reason, still others that the Earth is flat… People are lost, they must be guided.” Can we see a virtue in this? ? Of course not.
That being said, as the trial of “Phytosanis” was coming to an end and the European Union vote on pesticides was approaching, Frédéric Tellier would have the intelligence not to explicitly agree with either side. He would not grant victory to anyone, and would leave the viewer wondering: “What can happen next ?”
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