Although the film, directed by Stéphane Brizé, who also co-wrote it with Olivier Gorce, is set in France, its implications are far broader. For example, working men and women in the United States can recognize the cruelty of the marketplace and the way in which workers are pitted against one another.

Lindon plays Thierry Taugourdeau, 51, whom we meet as he struggles to find a job that he desperately needs after 20 months of unemployment. He is furious that classes he has been advised to take have left him without the skills for the jobs that may be open in highly competitive circumstances, and he doesn’t want to be sent on other wild goose chases. The situation is stacked against him. We learn that he is also fed up with union efforts to pursue court action against unfair labor practices of an employer who fired him and other workers. That seems futile in light of his belief in the need to move on instead of fighting a past injustice.

Thierry’s family scenes are touching. There is his wife, played sympathetically by Karine de Mirbeck. They have a handicapped but intelligent son, played by Matthieu Schaller, and caring for him is a chore, especially dealing with problems the lad is having in passing exams needed to advance his education. The family portrait adds a further emotional dimension to Thierry’s life.

The story, told with understatement rather than flamboyance and made realistic by considerable casting of non-actors, cuts to when Thierry has a new job working as a security guard in a huge store. His duty is to keep a sharp eye out for shoplifters, and spying cameras are everywhere to aid in watching. Potential suspects are also employees, such as those working the check-out counters.

It becomes clear that management is eager to cut its staff, not easy under France’s employment laws, so that finding an employee guilty of stealing is a welcome excuse for pruning the work force. Soon Thierry becomes pressured to be an accomplice in acts of cruelty that go beyond the minor offenses discovered, and one such event leads to dire consequences. The very system is built upon workers like Thierry having to take action against other employees.