France. September 1940. As Marshal Pétain's collaborationist government establishes itself in Vichy, Henri Marre, a 49-year-old engineer, arrives in the city carrying copies of his self-published political manifesto, Notre Salut (‘Our Salvation’). Convinced that his ideas and administrative skills can help rebuild France after its military defeat, he seeks a position within the new regime. The film is loosely based on the director’s own family history - Henri was writer-director Emmanuel Marre’s great-grandfather. Wartime letters exchanged between Henri and his wife Paulette (Sandrine Blancke) inform the script. Stylistically, the film blends jittery handheld cinematography, austere visual framing and anachronistic 1980s needle drops. These tonally destabilising choices only add to the film’s jarring, unsettling feel. The Cannes-winning screenplay grapples with the personal and the political at a moment of profound national upheaval. Anchored by Swann Arlaud’s gripping central performance as a man whose long-held convictions begin to unravel, A Man of His Time is a sly meditation on power and opportunism.