Saw this at the Rotterdam film festival 2017 (website: iffr.com). While it was interesting to follow political negotiations from nearby, showing what happens before AND behind the scenes. My main problem is that it seems heavily biased towards showing problems that women have in order to survive in a professional environment. I'm at a loss why only the three main female protagonists have issues at home, while none of the other (mostly but not all male) participants in the negotiations has any, at least none that we get to see.
I also missed dramatic developments with either of the three. None was prepared for drastic changes, at least none that we were made aware of. We get the impression that Emily was dumped, but we only saw a one-sided phone conversation, so we must fill in the blanks and infer what happened from her tears. Félixe had written many reports but none seem actually used "they wiped their asses with it". Also, she is ordered after the first day to keep her mouth shut as this is no "student council meeting". Danielle tries seriously to do what is good for their country, but feels that she alienates herself from her family in the process.
On a positive note, the screen play mixes political and commercial negotiations nicely with personal and domestic matters. There were no boring moments, several interesting discussions inside and outside the meeting rooms, and there was progress all the time.
All in all, not a problem to sit through. The morale or the message that is forced upon us, however, is demeaning for our intelligence, as these domestic issues while at work are far from new nor in any way surprising. The audience awarded it a halfway 86th place (out of 172) with score 3.818 (out of 5).
I also missed dramatic developments with either of the three. None was prepared for drastic changes, at least none that we were made aware of. We get the impression that Emily was dumped, but we only saw a one-sided phone conversation, so we must fill in the blanks and infer what happened from her tears. Félixe had written many reports but none seem actually used "they wiped their asses with it". Also, she is ordered after the first day to keep her mouth shut as this is no "student council meeting". Danielle tries seriously to do what is good for their country, but feels that she alienates herself from her family in the process.
On a positive note, the screen play mixes political and commercial negotiations nicely with personal and domestic matters. There were no boring moments, several interesting discussions inside and outside the meeting rooms, and there was progress all the time.
All in all, not a problem to sit through. The morale or the message that is forced upon us, however, is demeaning for our intelligence, as these domestic issues while at work are far from new nor in any way surprising. The audience awarded it a halfway 86th place (out of 172) with score 3.818 (out of 5).