Smoke Signals

"Smoke Signals" (2024) is a Belgian-French political thriller directed by Antoine Raimbault — watch it online on iFILM. The film reconstructs a real Brussels scandal: in October 2012, EU Health Commissioner John Dalli resigned in under 48 hours after being accused of influence peddling tied to tobacco industry lobbying. French MEP José Bové, played by Bouli Lanners, refuses to accept the official version.

Bové's investigation points toward Swedish Match and, potentially, toward Commission President Barroso's office. He has little concrete evidence. He pushes anyway. The screenplay keeps the procedural mechanics tight — committee votes, back-channel pressure, leaks — without turning the EU into a cartoon villain.

What the film is ultimately about is a narrow kind of integrity: one person deciding that the institutions are worth fighting for, even when those same institutions are closing ranks. Watch "Smoke Signals" (2024) online on iFILM.