DER WERT DES MENSCHEN

Thierry Taugourdeau (Vincent Lindon), a trained machine fitter, has become unemployed in his fifties. Job interviews, retraining courses and application workshops are followed by the first offer he can accept: security guard at a supermarket. But the job is not only about catching shoplifters – Thierry is also expected to keep watch on his colleagues at the checkouts, while management looks for reasons to dismiss them. “La loi du marché” (Der Wert des Menschen, France 2015) by Stéphane Brizé shows a man who wants to provide for his family and, in doing so, becomes part of a system that has itself just cast him aside.

In a few, tightly focused scenes, Brizé draws the picture of a society in which a person is reduced entirely to their labour; Lindon appears in almost every shot. It premiered in competition at Cannes on 18 May 2015, where Vincent Lindon was named Best Actor. Around the World in 14 Films opened its tenth edition with this film at the cinema in the Kulturbrauerei in Berlin on 27 November 2015 – as the Opening Night.

Shown at the 2015 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2015 · Film Archive