Capital

Marc Tourneuil is a middle ranking manager at a large European bank. The chairman falls ill and someone must be appointed in his place for the time being; the board picks Marc because they think him easy to manage. He accepts. He soon learns the work: who is tied to whom, who leaks information and which decision serves whom. An American fund wants to buy the bank. Marc appears to be coming to terms with them while at the same time securing his own position. He does not give up the chair. Costa-Gavras directs. Gad Elmaleh plays Marc; Gabriel Byrne is in the cast. The source is Stéphane Osmont's novel. Costa-Gavras made political films for many years and this is among his late works. The matter it treats is how the financial sector works; the film shows meetings, presentations and board decisions directly. The form is satire; the characters are cold and the narrative looks nowhere for a moral hero. The narration comes in the character's own voice and what he says is plainly sardonic. The section on dismissals is its hardest part; the decision is taken from a spreadsheet and its consequence is never shown. Its limit is depth; the narrative criticises the system while leaving how it works on the surface. Who it is for: viewers who like political satire and narratives grounded in finance. Who it is not for: the characters are cold, the plot weak, and the ending open.