The Sitting Duck (15)
Directed by Jean-Paul Salome 

SET within France’s nuclear power industry, this extraordinary political thriller (original title: La Syndicaliste, demoted in the English version to an anti-union pejorative) is based on the real life story of trade unionist and whistleblower Maureen Kearney, and how she was crushed by the system when she tried to lift the lid on a top secret deal that shook the French nuclear sector. 

Kearney (Isabelle Huppert) was the head trade union representative at Areva, one of France’s nuclear energy giants, where she fought relentlessly to safeguard the jobs of its 50,000-strong workforce. On learning that a contract was being agreed with the Chinese that would result in the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology from Areva to China and the loss of thousands of jobs at Areva, Kearney confronted ministers and industry leaders as she battled for her members. 

Months later, on December 17 2012, she was brutally attacked in her own home. 

She had a hood put over her head and was tied to a chair while her assailant carved an “A,” either for Areva or “avertissement” (which means warning in French), on her stomach and then sexually assaulted her with a knife. 

Huppert, who teams up with co-writer/director Jean-Paul Salome for the second time, is unbelievable as Kearney, who was actually Irish although Huppert plays her as French, in a career-defining performance. Refusing to be a victim she reapplies her red lipstick and fixes her blonde chignon (her armour) following a harrowing internal examination by a male doctor who is confounded by her actions. 

She is then downgraded from victim to suspect by the male officer (Pierre Deladonchamps) in charge of the police investigation into her attack, who claims they found no DNA evidence at the scene, no fingerprints, no forced entry and no witnesses. Plus, according to the medical reports “she did not react like a woman who’s been raped,” which frankly beggars belief. 

Kearney is then accused of staging the attack herself even though due to a shoulder injury she could not have tied herself up. Also, the police fail to investigate links to a very similar attack in 2006 on the wife of another whistleblower in the French energy industry. 

Inspired by investigative journalist Caroline Michel-Aguirre’s book, the film paints a chilling picture of the political machinations of the French nuclear industry and the dire lengths its male leaders were prepared to go to stop a woman like Kearney by destroying her reputation and career, and depicting her as being mentally unstable. 

La Syndicaliste proves to be a taut and nail-biting thriller which is anchored by a stellar and multilayered portrayal by Huppert which does justice to Kearney and her astonishing story. 

Out in cinemas today