Misericordia

Described by 3MBS FM’s Film Scores presenter Richard Leathem as “Tom at the Farm with more penises”, Miséricorde – the original French name means mercy – isn’t the latest from Xavier Dolan. Sadly, there may never be another. No, it’s the return to form of Stranger by the Lake writer/director Alain Guiraudie, who casts Félix Kysyl as Jérémie.

He’s returned to the village of his youth to pay his respects to the baker who once employed him, and with whom he was perhaps in love. Sometime best friend Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand) isn’t so pleased to see him, acting standoffish when Jérémie asks to stay with his grieving mother (the magnificent Catherine Frot) and shows no signs of leaving. All the while, the village’s various men begin to jostle for the outsider’s attention in an unnervingly erotic tale that leads to skullduggery. If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise.