THE GOLDMAN CASE (2023) NYJFF 2024 opens Friday

I saw this film in January as part of the New York Jewish Film Festival and told not to review the film until the film was released. With the film being released Friday here is my review.

Recreation of the retrial of Pierre Goldman, the son of Polish Jews who was a political activist, convicted of several robberies, which he admitted to, and to two murders which he denied. Sent to prison on several consecutive life sentences, wrote a book and was granted a new trial.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, This is a very well made film that is going to mean absolutely nothing to you if you don't know the Goldman case or it's context with in French history. Focusing on the retrial and only the retrial (we are only fleetingly outside of the courtroom) there is no context given of any sort. There is no indication as to why the case was big news or why Goldman mattered.  There are references to the book being a big seller but outside of him attacking the establishment we don't know what the big deal is.  Even the end crawl left me still wondering who Goldman was and why I should care. (My reading of his Wikipedia page filled in the details but not the reason why he was so important)

While not a bad film, I was curious enough to stay to see how it played out, it is not a film that is going to to mean anything to you unless you go in knowing who Goldman was.