Der Wert des Menschen

Machinist Thierry becomes unemployed at the age of 50. Employment office, retraining, job interviews. Money becomes tight, family life suffers. A job as a department store detective, which is far below his qualifications, initially gives him hope, but ultimately plunges him into an even greater moral dilemma. As a victim of the “law of the market”, is he prepared to continue with it and become a perpetrator himself?

In his incomparable feature film trilogy (“The Value of Man”, “Strike”, “Another World”), Stéphane Brizé sheds light on modern labor practices from different perspectives - with French film star Vincent Lindon, who impresses in alternating roles as a job seeker, union leader and corporate boss. “The overarching message, however, always remains the same: no one feels comfortable in post-industrial capitalism.” (Astrid Hampe-Nathaniel). In the first part shown here, Thierry becomes the face of the unemployment statistics that we hear about every day in the news, but whose human tragedies usually remain hidden from us. Vincent Lindon was awarded Best Actor in Cannes for the role of Thierry. (Jörg Markowitsch)

Introduction by Astrid Hampe-Nathaniel