Misericordia

Released in 2024, Misericordia is the eighth feature by Alain Guiraudie, whose earlier films (Stranger by the Lake, Staying Vertical, Nobody's Hero) have made him one of the most distinctive figures in contemporary French cinema. It premiered as part of the Cannes Premiere section at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, before going on to win the Louis Delluc Prize and being named the best film of 2024 by Cahiers du Cinéma.

Newcomer Félix Kysyl plays Jérémie, returning to a village he had left long ago, opposite Catherine Frot as the bereaved Martine. Around them, Guiraudie surrounds the chamber piece with a small ensemble that includes Jacques Develay as the village priest and Jean-Baptiste Durand as Martine's uneasy son. Cinematographer Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Saint Omer) shoots the surrounding chestnut forests in low, autumnal light, and the score, by Marc Verdaguer, plays against the action with sly Hitchcockian wit.

French critics responded with an enthusiasm rare even for Guiraudie: Cahiers placed the film at number one for the year, and the César nominations followed, including Best Film and Best Director. International coverage emphasised the film's blending of pastoral comedy, queer desire and rural noir, and many reviewers cited it as the year's clearest example of a working European auteur entering a fully assured late phase, comfortable mixing sex, the sacred and the procedural in a single forest path.