Top of Cahiers du Cinema’s 2024 List is the latest from director Alain Guiraudie, a darkly comic tale of eros and thanatos set deep in La France Profonde. A young man, Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), returns to the southern village of Saint-Martial where he was raised to attend the funeral of his former employer, a man for whom he still holds strong feelings. The man's widow Martine (Catherine Frot) invites him to stay— much to the annoyance of her son, Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand) whose own relationship with Jérémie is complex. A disappearance, a priest and nefarious goings-on in the dark woods spiral out of control in Misericordia, where each revelation only leads to further chaos.

Guiraudie's Stranger By the Lake is a favourite of ours so we're delighted that Misericordia is something of a companion piece to his 2013 film, albeit one that blends the mounting feeling of dread with a wicked sense of humour. With able assistance from cinematographer Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Guiraudie finds menace and decay in the misty forests and winding roads of the French countryside along with small-town claustrophobia, a libidinal haze that becomes almost suffocating. Leading man Félix Kysyl delivers an extraordinary mercurial performance as a man who seems to be a mystery even to himself, a dangerous locus point for the queer (in every sense of the word) desires of the villagers. Like a waking dream, Misericordia is a journey to a place both wonderful and strange.