A Good Little Soldier

In 2025, Stéphane Brizé served as a member of the official jury in Venice and helped decide which film would receive the festival’s Golden Lion. This year, he returns as a contender, vying for one of the coveted prizes himself. The French writer and director’s filmography is filled with socially conscious dramas that explore the relationship between economic systems and human lives. Anchored in the style of a workplace comedy, A Good Little Soldier (Un Métier Sérieux) builds on this ongoing fascination.

Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher (La Chimera) stars as Carla, who recently joined the Human Resources department of an insurance provider. In an effort to rebrand their image as an inspiring place to work, the company has commissioned a promotional video showcasing employees with disabilities. Discussing the clip, an executive of the old guard (Vincent Lindon) considers himself the only one brave enough to voice his disapproval. In the aftermath of this uncomfortable meeting, Carla is forced into damage control when an audio recording of verbal abuse at the oh-so-inclusive firm surfaces.

Co-written by Brizé and his frequent collaborator Olivier Gorce, as well as Coralie Amédéo (previously a casting director), the script skilfully tackles everyday tragedy through a razor-sharp satirical lens. Its no-holds-barred dialogue cuts to the bone of the convenient illusion political correctness can provide without solving real issues or actually protecting people. Because the aggressor is one of the insurer’s most productive workers, and the person on the other end only meets the basic requirements, the higher-ups see the daily bullying as essentially vindicated. By rendering Carla a sitting duck, the film exposes HR for what it is: a mere instrument of corporate self-preservation.

This marks Lindon’s sixth collaboration with Brizé, but notably, his first in a smaller, supporting role. Instead of slipping into the usual working-class hero, the Titane actor takes on the role of antagonist for a change. The no-nonsense persona of this CEO, who prides himself on saying what others won’t, evidently uses his position and supposed pragmatism as a license for cruelty. Rohrwacher excels at portraying Carla’s gradual disillusionment: her initial confidence and idealism slowly withering before our eyes.

The film opens with Joey Ramone’s cover of It’s a Wonderful World in a stuttering, low-budget montage of Carla’s daily commute, radiating the frantic style of the early 2000s. On the one hand, this highlights the disconnect between the lyrics that speak of trees of green, while the stagnant industrial air of subway stations and escalators is a far cry from the beauty of nature. Later, Louis Armstrong’s version returns in the image video, a despicable act of hijacking a Black civil rights icon to whitewash corporate greed – a playbook straight out of reality.

A Good Little Soldier offers an unsparing look at capitalist callousness, where individual fates are reduced to cogs in an indifferent machine. What starts off as a humorous, if dark, take on corporate absurdity quickly turns sour as the unforgiving system is unmasked and the audience’s laughter catches in their throat.

Selina Sondermann

Read more reviews from our Venice Film Festival 2026 coverage here.

For further information about the event, visit the Venice Film Festival website here.