Writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger By the Lake) serves up a twisted tale of seduction set in the picturesque French countryside. Returning to beautiful Saint-Martial for the funeral of his former boss, Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) becomes the object of attraction for widow Martine (Catherine Frot). The situation greatly displeases Martine’s son Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand), and soon enough there is bloodshed in the woods. Jérémie then finds himself contending with the attention of the police and the amorous intentions of the local abbot (Jacques Develay)…
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, Misericordia is also notable for the daring way it blurs boundaries: between maternal love and sexual desire, between violent animosity and same-sex attraction, between natural charisma and crafty calculation. Along with suspense and surprise, Guiraudie generates a subtle, slowly escalating humour; the shift from menace to comedy is executed with wonderful grace. In its movement from the bedroom to the confession booth and back, this film provides a discomfiting, darkly amusing take on human psychology.
Community Partner
Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot
France/Spain/Portugal
2024
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Charles Gillibert
Screenwriter
Alain Guiraudie
Cinematography
Claire Mathon
Editor
Jean-Christophe Hym
Production Design
Emmanuelle Duplay
Original Music
Marc Verdaguer
Alain Guiraudie
Alain Guiraudie is a French filmmaker acclaimed known for films like The King of Escape (2009) and Staying Vertical (2016). Guiraudie has garnered critical praise for his exploration of sexuality and human desire. His most notable film, Stranger by the Lake (2013), won the Queer Palm and Best Director Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Filmography: No Rest for the Braves (2003); Time Has Come (2005); The King of Escape (2009); Stranger by The Lake (2013); Staying Vertical (2016); Nobody’ Hero (2021)
Photo by Helene Bamberger
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Chasing Ice
This visually stunning film follows renowned National Geographic photographer James Balog on a harsh Arctic expedition where he captures a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers — undeniable evidence that our planet is in crisis. The screening will be introduced by James Balog.
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Calle Málaga
Seventy-nine-year-old María Ángeles lives independently in Tangier's Spanish quarter. When her daughter pressures her into selling her apartment, she refuses to give in, finding in her old age a new resilience and an unexpected romantic connection.
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.
