La Syndicaliste

What makes Jean-Paul Salomé’s “paranoid” thriller particularly engrossing is the way it tackles multiple themes - the nature of women in the workplace, the environment, political manipulation, union power - while never losing sight of the nail-biting suspense along the way.

Sustained by a bravura performance from Isabelle Huppert in a total change of register from her last comedic outing with the same director Mama Weed, the new collaboration never puts a frame out of place. It is based on a true story, first tackled in a book by the journalist Caroline Michel-Aguirre.

With new blonde chignon hair style and spectacles that almost become a character in their own right, Huppert plays Irish woman Maureen Kearney, who has lived in France since she arrived in her twenties on a teaching assignment. She’s now the head union representative of a multinational nuclear conglomerate who has no hesitation in denouncing top secret deals in the sector which would have an adverse effect on her workforce. She’s feisty and unafraid of making waves.

So far so militant but she has not bargained for her life being turned upside down after she is subjected to a terrifying and violent attack in her own home. During the police investigation into her alleged attacker the authorities start to have doubts about the veracity of her account. Instead of being considered a victim of the assault she becomes a suspect with one view espoused by the investigating officer that she has made up the story.

Salomé spares none of the detail of the forensic police procedures as Kearney is subjected to all manner of physical and mental indignities to try to prove her innocence. At several points she seems prepared to give up but then rallies. Partly her courage is sustained by her husband (a quietly understated performance from Grégory Gadebois) and her daughter (Alexandra Maria Lara) who never falter in their conviction that Kearney has been wronged.

Although Kearney has faded from the limelight (apart from a few public appearances to support the film) the salutary thought remains to haunt audiences long after the final credits: her attacker has never been identified for found - he (or she) is still out there.