La fille de Brest: European cinema that won't make you jump off a bridge

I am at San Sebastian International Film Festival! I'm certain you are all keen on hearing my opinions regarding black and white Belarussian films you will never ever watch, so I come bearing a bunch of super exciting reviews for you!

The first one is about the opening movie for this 64SSIFF, which has been, and I have no idea why since nobody knows about it, La Fille de Brest (La Fille de Brest/150 Milligrams, Emmanuelle Bercot, 2016), which tells the real story about how doctor Irène Frachon (Sidse Babett Knudsen) had to try to bring down a powerful pharmaceutical company practically on her own when she realised that a drug called Mediator, used as appetite suppressant and prescribed by French cardiologists for years, was actually causing the death of a ton of patients.

Focused nearly exclusively on its main character, who is as brave and stubborn as it gets, the story is light and acceptably thrilling, with te small issue that it looks more like a series of mini-episodes than a whole product. Indeed, talking to some other viewers after the screening, we all agreed that the feeling of repetition was difficult to ignore. This is really not a big deal, though, and speaking in general terms La Fille de Brest is a film I can recommend, especially due to the good cast choice, in which everyone makes a brilliant job. Moreover, it is always cool to get to know a real story as aggressive as this one. Real-life Irène Frachon, who is, by the way, a genuinely lovely woman, told us more about this subject in the press conference, that you can watch here. Probably the most interesting bit was Irène explaining how she has not really been harassed by pharmaceutical companies after spilling the appetite suppressing beans, but how she barely goes to medical conferences anymore because she knows doctors are not very fond of her.

I also was grateful by the fact that the movie doesn't fall into the million cliches that would be expected in a title like this: there is no parallel romance to compensate a frustrating marriage, no unnecessary sex scene, that kind of stuff. The only stereotype they do show is about pharmaceutical companies being evil and mean as hell. It might even be true, I don't know, but it's kind of tiring to always see them portrayed as the super bad guys.

Also, as an FYI, just know that there are a couple of really hard-to-watch images regarding surgery. I was fine because Grey's Anatomy and CSI have trained me well, but there is an autopsy scene in which some people left the theatre. Just so you know. Nevertheless, it's just like five minutes in total, so you just have to look away. And ignore the sound of cracking ribs, now that I think about it.