“Employee of the Month” is headed stateside. Deadline reports that Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Véronique Jadin’s dark comedy with plans to release it in theaters early next year, with a wide release across home entertainment and digital platforms to follow.
Penned by Jadin and Nina Vanspranghe, the French-language film follows “the middle-aged Inès (Jasmina Douieb), who has long been a diligent employee of the small wholesale household products company, EcoCleanPro. Tasked with mentoring a young trainee, the sarcastic Melody (Laetitia Mampaka), Inès embraces her role. However, while she treats her work seriously, her male counterparts and her boss consistently belittle her, ordering her to do menial tasks,” the source summarizes. “With her patience running out and under Melody’s blasé gaze, Inès meets with Patrick (Peter Van den Begin) to ask for a raise. Surprisingly, the situation quickly spins out of control and an accidental crime is committed, with both Inès and Melody then being forced to decide how to cover their tracks and clean up their mess.”
“In her very accomplished debut, Veronique deftly utilizes outlandish and comic scenarios to soften the sharp edges of her workplace satire,” said Film Movement President Michael Rosenberg. “However, she also manages to make some very valuable points about sexism and misogyny in the workplace, and we’re excited to bring her feature-length film to audiences across North America.”
“Employee of the Month” screened at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. It marks Jadin’s first narrative feature. She previously helmed the 2015 doc “On est loin d’avoir fini!”
