Kompromat

Mathieu Roussel is a Frenchman working at the French institute in Irkutsk, Siberia, in 2017. One night Russian authorities arrest him in front of his daughter, and he is imprisoned on charges of sexually abusing her. He comes to understand that he has been caught in a kompromat: false compromising material assembled with the help of the FSB to destroy an enemy of the state. Cut off from any support and with no realistic prospect of proving his innocence, he concludes that escaping the country is his only way out if he ever wants to see his family again.

Jérôme Salle directed and co-wrote the film with Caryl Férey, and also produced it with Marc Simoncini and Albane de Jourdan. It is the sixth feature Salle directed, following Anthony Zimmer, The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch, Largo Winch II, Zulu and The Odyssey. Gilles Lellouche plays Mathieu, with Joanna Kulig, Mikhail Gorevoy, Sasha Piltsin, Mikhail Safronov and Oleksiy Horbunov in supporting roles. A French-American production, it runs 127 minutes.

Released in September 2022, the film took about four million dollars worldwide at the box office, a modest result for a thriller of this scale. Audiences are divided but mildly positive: it holds 6.4 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 3,700 votes and 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB from close to 300 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4 out of 10 from 30 reviews places professional assessment roughly in line with the audience response.