MISERICORDIA New Teaser: Ari Aster, Claire Denis, Payal Kapadia, and More Praise Alain Guiraudie’s Queer Noir

Writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) explores desire and mercy in his newest queer noir, Misericordia. Translating to Mercy, the film follows Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) who returns to his Saint-Martial home for his late boss’s funeral. He soon becomes entangled with an old widow, her aggressive son, a shady abbot, and a disappearance. The film premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival to great acclaim, before making stops at Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF. It was nominated for 8 César Awards (France’s Academy Awards), including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Male Revelation for star Kysyl. Ahead of the film’s release in theaters on March 21, Sideshow and Janus Films have released a new teaser trailer that shouts the praises of today’s auteurs by the likes of Ari Aster, Payal Kapadia, Claire Denis, Radu Jude, and more.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The teasingly entwined ambiguities of love and death continue to fascinate Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake, NYFF51), 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). In Guiraudie’s quietly carnal world, violence and eroticism explode with little anticipation, and criminal behavior can seem like a natural extension of physical desire. The French director is at the top of his game in Misericordia, again upending all genre expectations.

Check out the new teaser trailer and fabulous poster below.

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