The movie Goliath with Gilles Lellouche and Pierre Niney is broadcast this Sunday, December 1 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2. It recounts an investigation into harmful pesticides after the tragic act of an environmental activist.
Questionable practices of the pharmaceutical industry discussed in The Constant Gardener by Fernando Meirelles (2005) to those of the chemical industry cited in Dark Waters by Todd Haynes (2020), health scandals have often been fertile ground for cinema. In this same vein, France 2 is programming the film Goliath, Sunday December 1st at 9:10 p.m.. A fiction which traces the destinies of three characters against the backdrop of investigations into an agrochemical giant. Released in 2022 in cinemas, this thriller has collected 780,000 admissions in France. On the bill, a five-star cast with, among others, Gilles Lellouche, Pierre Niney, Emmanuelle Bercot, Jacques Perrin, Laurent Stocker, Marie Gillain… Director Frédéric Tellier (The SK1 Affair, Save or perish) is also the co-writer of this shocking story, which is reminiscent of an affair which recently shook public opinion.
Goliath : a punchy thriller
After the suicide by self-immolation of an environmental activist, Patrick (Gilles Lellouche) a lawyer in Paris and specialist in environmental law, Mathias (Pierre Niney) a brilliant lobbyist and France (Emmanuelle Bercot) a militant worker and activist, see their destinies intersect and 'clash. This sudden and shocking death awakens a collective conscience. Many citizens are rising up against an agrochemical giant. To write his film, director and screenwriter Frédéric Tellier was inspired by a case that caused a lot of noise in France. “My films deal with a true story (…) and go through a long phase of immersion and investigation”he specifies. For Goliath, this investigation phase lasts approximately five years because the environment in which he operates is “very opaque”.
Real facts behind the story of Goliath
The case that the film talks about is linked to the trial experienced by the company Monsanto and which had a particularly strong impact, particularly in France in the 2000s. This concerns the controversies and complaints surrounding the chemical substance called glyphosate (in the film, the pesticide in question is tetrazine), used for example in the weedkiller Roundup and accused of being the cause of many cancers. The company has been singled out for its aggressive practices and its pressure on farmers. Several lawsuits against it in France and the United States have ordered the company to pay heavy compensation to the plaintiffs. Goliaththe film by Frédéric Tellier reports on this power struggle and the excesses of agrochemistry in the face of public health and the environment.
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