Misericordia

Misericordia (Miséricorde, 2024) is Alain Guiraudie's French thriller laced with pitch-black comedy, and you can watch online on iFILM. Jérémie comes back to his home village for the funeral of the baker he once worked for, then lingers a few days at the home of the widow, Martine. The quiet visit curdles fast.

Martine's son Vincent reads the guest as a threat and picks a fight. From there: a disappearance, a jittery neighbor, an oddly attentive village priest who watches the newcomer a little too closely, and woods that make a convenient place to bury a problem. Guiraudie winds a rural mystery where nobody says what they mean and guilt seeps out to touch everyone. Félix Kysyl plays Jérémie, with Catherine Frot — one of French cinema's most precise actresses — as the widow.

This is festival-circuit filmmaking: slow, ambiguous, charged with quiet desire and absurdity instead of car chases. Guiraudie shoots a crime as a comedy of manners about wanting, shame, and the strange mercy of a small town that looks the other way. Made for viewers who savor a patient, deceptively calm European thriller. Stream Misericordia (2024) online on iFILM.