RULES OF THE GAME
"An honest-to-goodness crowdpleaser, a counterintuitively funny film on a grim topic." – Filmmaker
Getting a job isn't just about skills and education; it's also about meeting the expectations of today's employment market. Lolita, Kevin and Hamid lack substantial resumes and don't know how to get through an interview, but they're about to receive some help.
A deliberate play on the title of Renoir's 1939 comedy of manners, Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard's observational documentary tracks the trio and their fellow aspiring workers as they are mentored by an employment consulting agency in northern France, learning how to pitch themselves according to business desires, how to ‘win' an interview and more.
This process of getting ‘job ready' isn't easy; in fact, often it's absurdly farcical. However, the film is honest in its approach to the difficulties marginalised youth face in trying to earn a living, and empathetic in dissecting the unspoken, seemingly satirical, codes of conduct they have to master.
"A thoughtful exploration about how the disenfranchised are made to confirm to norms they find difficult to comprehend ... generating edge-of-seat tension to the viewing experience, Bories and Chagnard have produced a winning piece." – Hollywood Reporter