The Outsider

Christophe Barratier's film tells the story of Jérôme Kerviel, from his hiring at Société Générale to the bank's announcement in January 2008 of losses of four point nine billion euros. Arthur Dupont plays Kerviel, with François-Xavier Demaison and Sabrina Ouazani in the cast. The source is Kerviel's 2010 memoir L'engrenage, which is where the film's angle comes from. Barratier presents him not as a trader out of control but as a quiet young man from a working-class family in Brittany who adapts fast to the speed and culture of a Paris trading floor. His positions reach around fifty billion euros, and at that point the film puts its real question: was it actually possible for the bank not to notice? That same choice is its weakness. Holding so firmly to Kerviel's side reduces the affair to the story of a single victim and leaves the system in the background. Who it is for: viewers who like films about finance and adaptations of real scandals. Who it is not for: anyone wanting balance or all sides of the case.