Writers: Coralie Amedeo, Stéphane Brizé and Olivier Gorce
Director: Stéphane Brizé
An impressive workplace drama with moments of black comedy that are all too recognisable, Stéphane Brizé’s A Good Little Soldier, screening at the BFI London Film Festival, opens with a hilarious corporate video for an insurance firm trying to attract new graduates. Clearly situated in the real experience of the writers Coralie Amedeo, Brizé and Olivier Gorce, this French HR-based story inspired by The Office and Call My Agent understands the tricky balance for a Human Resources manager between the company line, the law and her own family situation, depicting an ongoing battle between a company’s external reputation and what it’s really like to work there.
HR rep Carla sits on a management group all sucking up to the erratic boss Arnaud who wants the new company video to be more inspirational. But when an employee is recorded shouting inappropriately at a member of her team, Carla is left with a dilemma whether to protect the employee who could bring tribunal action or the company who believes she is underperforming. Trapped between two roles, Carla comes under fire at home and at work.
Brizé’s drama is acutely observed and anyone who has worked in an office, been a manager or has any understanding of corporate hierarchies will recognise the dark tone that A Good Little Soldier develops as its rhetoric about supporting employees and creating a positive working environment never really applies in practice. So, when Carla is given a real case to work on, one that is unquestionably a failure of management and inappropriate behaviour, the convolutions that Carla’s bosses use to twist the problem back to one of employee underperformance are sadly recognisable.
The satirical script by Amedeo, Brizé and Gorce is filled with fantastic lines and scenarios from the top management meeting where no one says anything to contradict the company owner, the reshoots of the video that even in its new iteration proves cringeworthy, to Arnaud himself who is monstrous in his dismissal of political correctness or any kind of decency, loyalty or understanding for this staff. The comedy juts nicely against the growing strain that Carla feels as more pressure is piled on her to resolve the situation, knowing that her own job is on the line whichever way she turns, and every option is the wrong one.
Alba Rohrwacher appears in her second festival film (following A Common Story) as the exhausted Carla whose human version of HR is quickly pushed aside, realising that her job is not to help the staff but to protect the company from them. The frustration she feels boils over with her own child in glimpses of her family life and Rohrwacher expertly conveys the strain, jaded irritation and bone-deep tiredness of being in a hamster wheel she cannot escape. Her subtly is matched by Vincent Lindon’s horrendous Arnaud whose explosions are hilarious.
A bit too real at times, A Good Little Soldier reveals the reality of being in middle management and the unrelenting pressure to toe the company line.
A Good Little Soldier is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.
