Misericordia | Reel Lives
Date: 5 June 2025
Venue: Nerve Centre, 7-8 Magazine Street, Derry, Derry, BT48 6HJ
The teasingly entwined ambiguities of love and death continue to fascinate French auteur Alain Guiraudie, 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).
Alain Guiraudie | France, Spain, Portugal | 2024 | 104 mins | Subtitled | 15