From Page to Screen
Screening
FRA | 2023 | 116 mins | dir. Cédric Kahn, with Arieh Worthalter, Arthur Harari, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié | In French with EN subs | Cert TBC
A tense, edge-of-the-seat courtroom drama powerfully recreating the trial of Pierre Goldman in 1976 France, which was widely acknowledged as the most divisive case since the Dreyfus Affair of 1894. Prosecuted for a triple murder during the armed robbery of a Parisian pharmacy, Goldman, the rebellious son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, whose father was also a decorated Resistance fighter, refused to call any witnesses to his character. Politically on the far left and defiantly Jewish in his identity, Goldman accused the police of institutional antisemitism and racism, and of conspiring to convict him of a crime of which he was innocent. Author of the groundbreaking Dim Memories of a Polish Jew born in France, Goldman was a fine speaker. Selected to open the Critics Week in Cannes, The Goldman Case earned Arieh Worthalter the 2024 César for Best Actor.