Misericordia

NR | 104 min

French with English Subtitles

The teasingly entwined ambiguities of love and death continue to fascinate Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake), who returns with a sharp, sinister, yet slyly funny thriller. 

Set in an autumnal, woodsy village in his native region of Occitanie, his latest follows the meandering exploits of Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), an out-of-work baker who has drifted back to his hometown after the death of his beloved former boss, a bakery owner. 

Staying long after the funeral, the seemingly benign Jérémie begins to casually insinuate himself into his mentor's family, including his kind-hearted widow (Catherine Frot) and venomously angry son (Jean-Baptiste Durand), while making an increasingly surprising--and ultimately beneficial--friendship with an oddly cheerful local priest (Jacques Develay). 

In Guiraudie's quietly carnal world, violence and eroticism explode with little anticipation, and criminal behavior can seem like a natural extension of physical desire.