EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at The Goldman Case, the political drama from French actor and director Cédric Kahn, which opens Cannes’s Quinzaine section this evening.
Billed as a “psycho-pathological portrait of a militant revolutionary,” the pic tells the story of the court trial of Pierre Goldman, a Jewish far-left activist who was sentenced to life imprisonment for four armed robberies, one of which resulted in the death of two women. During the trial, Goldman pleads not guilty to the murder charges. The massively-covered court proceedings transform Goldman into a romantic figure and a hero of the intellectual left, even as the relationship with his young attorney Georges Kiejman frays. Ever the agitator for his ideals, the elusive and mercurial Goldman throws his own trial into chaos, risking a death sentence.
Kahn co-wrote the screenplay with Nathalie Hertzberg. The film was produced by Benjamin Elalouf, with Nathalie Dennes as associate producer. Cast features Arieh Worthalter, Jeremy Lewin, and Arthur Harari. Other credits include casting by Antoine Carrard, cinematography by Patrick Ghiringhelli, editing by Yann Dedet, and costumes by Alice Cambournac.
“The script was based, first and foremost, on documentary research,” Kahn said introducing the pic. “Nathalie Hertzberg and I interviewed Georges Kiejman and André Chouraqui at length; we reconstructed the day-to-day proceedings of the trial from newspaper articles. We made sure to create the most effective narrative possible, reinforcing its content by merging elements from the two Pierre Goldman trials.”
French-based company Charades is handling sales.
Check out the clip above.