La Syndicaliste is brought to the screen by writer/director Jean-Paul Salomé and is based on the 2019 non-fiction book by Caroline Michel-Aguirre. The great Isabelle Huppert stars as Maureen Kearney, an Irish trade unionist for a nuclear power company who suffers the consequences of whistle-blowing on a secret deal with a Chinese power company. Vague threats culminate in her being grabbed, tied-up, mutilated and raped in her own home. The police initially investigate, but soon decide that Maureen staged the whole thing, with the courts backing them up.
This is an extraordinary true story that received shockingly little coverage here, so I was aghast at a lot of the events shown. Salomé keeps things moving very briskly and provides a really gripping political thriller. Superficially Huppert’s casting should not work. She is too old for the part and is clearly not an Irish woman living in France! So, it is a testament to how brilliant an actress Huppert is that she is totally compelling. Of the rest of the cast, Gregory Gadebois and Mara Taquin both shine as Maureen’s husband and daughter, and Aloise Sauvage impresses as a sympathetic cop.
An eye-opening and disturbing movie.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10