‘Goliath’: when the giant wins the game

Frédéric Tellier is drawn to capturing stories inspired by real events in cinema. He did this with his debut film, ‘The sk1 case’, about serial killer Guy Georges, which served as a reference for his protagonist, a young policeman investigating a similar case; he paid tribute to firefighters in “Save or Die” and now denounces the corruption of lobbies in the system in ‘Goliath’, inspired by the Monsanto scandalthe US agribusiness company that hid from its customers the dangers of its pesticide, whose main chemical element was glyphosate.

As with Tellier’s proposals, even if they take real cases as a reference, the director transforms them into fictional stories. Of course, “Goliath” is no exception, placing the case in France. The interesting thing is that the director, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Moutairou, tries to portray the corruption of the lobbies and how they pervert the democratic system and how they have become one of the main problems of the European Parliamentas Brussels is its main source of operations.

Tellier chooses to make an ensemble thriller, where the protagonists are a fighting lawyer why his client, a farmer whose wife was suffering from cancer from pesticides from the powerful agrochemical company Phytosanis, mainly produced from tetrazine; a brilliant and ambitious lobbyist who works for both agrochemicals as for other industries with a bad reputation for being harmful to the environment as well an anti-pesticide activist who sees how her husband has developed lymphoma from the herbicides his neighbor uses.

As the lawyer and activist show how social movements come together to take on this corporate giant, the lobbyist shows the other perspective. It is precisely the lobbyist approach is what interests and elevates the thriller, as Tillier ruthlessly captures how the strategies of lobbyists are handled, with which they manage senior executives and also politicians and other relevant figures; as well as creating aggressive disinformation campaigns. Despite the tetrazine scandal, the leading lobbyist remains focused on ensuring the chemical is not banned across Europe.

A solvent thriller about lobbies and corruption

It’s that political campaign the thriller’s greatest strength, which manages to make a harsh critique of European estates, who have less surveillance. It should be remembered that the regulation of the European Parliament has a strong voluntary character. This implies that only half of MEPs choose to be transparent in their meetings with lobbyists. Furthermore, one of the main criticisms of the EU is the opaqueness that exists in what should be a congress democratically elected by the citizens of the 27 countries that make up the Union.

that’s where the film shows how easy it is to buy votes for pressure groups and how this causes a clear disconnect with the European citizen. On the other hand, Tellier does not forget the great dilemma that exists in the agricultural sector. Yes, pesticides are bad, removing them would be the logical thing to do. However, they have been used more and more since then to reduce costs organic production involves higher costs, which makes it unaffordable for most farmers.

Its political and social perspective make ‘Goliath’ a remarkable thriller. Tellier shows his ability to combine intrigue and suspense with the most emotional vein, that of the struggle of activists. On the other hand, he also shows that it is not so easy to face multinationals and lobbyists working behind the scenes, which implies that, in this battle, there can be victories, but also defeats. A proposal that shows a director who grows with each new feature film.

Note: 8

The best: The representation of how lobbies work and the impunity that exists against corruption at a European level.

Worse: His more emotional parts are overly conventional.