The Right Of The Weakest

Social commentary meets crime thriller in Lucas Belvaux’s politically charged heist caper. A powerful drama with unpredictable humour, The Right of The Weakest questions a broken system in which only the strongest or most privileged survive. In the desolate industrial city of Liège, a group of laid-off steelworkers, facing financial and personal despair, gather once a week in a café to play cards. Patrick (Eric Caravaca), a married father of one, is a college graduate who cannot find a job, while his friends Robert and Jean- Pierre have been made redundant. They toil away at life on the breadline until one day, Marc, a man who had just been released from prison, joins the group and starts plotting a way out of their misery. Belvaux’s film evokes the working class experience within a tense and nervy atmosphere in the vain of his compatriots the Dardennes’ brothers, or Shane Meadows on this side of the channel. With a keen sense of empathy and a thriller set-up worthy of anything Hollywood has to offer, The Right of the Weakest is one of those rare films that manages to pull at the heart-strings while giving you plenty to think about.