“Even when drunk, cravings are real,” says a police officer to Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) during the interrogation, when he tries to explain inconsistencies in his statement with a few glasses of undiluted pastis. Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand) disappeared overnight and his car was found in a small town far away. Jérémie gets entangled in contradictions when it comes to the details. Sometimes the two of them drove around together all night, involved in a heated conversation, sometimes they separated after a heated, short argument and Jérémie was left alone in the forest. And what exactly was it like between the two friends since their youth: who was keen on the other?
The deepest desire expressed in “Misericordia“ by Alain Guiraudi, which makes all other desires come alive, is already far in the past at the beginning of the film and is only awakened again by a death: After ten years, Jérémie returns to the village of Saint-Martial because Jean-Pierre (Serge Richard), a master baker with whom he had trained as a teenager, died unexpectedly. Once Jérémie didn't have the courage to confess his affection to the older man, now all that remains is a photo from last summer: Jean-Pierre on the beach, tanned, with a gold chain and swimming trunks patterned in the colors of France is. Desire for him will forever have to remain a fantasy.

Martine (Catherine Frot) sees the returnee Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) as a potential replacement for her late husband – in several ways.
And yet there are other, long-suppressed attractions between the village residents that could actually find fulfillment: Martine (Catherine Frot), the widow of the deceased, longs for Jérémie. She sees him as a kind of replacement, to whom she not only gives her husband's clothes, including his underwear, to wear, but who is also supposed to take over the old bakery. Walter (David Ayala), another long-time, rather reclusive friend, and a priest (Jacques Develay) who lives in the house next door, who later in the film will reveal one of the most impressive erect penises in film history, also seem to be encapsulated in their repressed feelings .
And then there is Vincent, Jean-Pierre's son, who is so confused by his feelings for his childhood friend that he only allows touching in aggressive arguments: During an escalating argument in a forest clearing, Jérémie kills him with a stone and buries the body…
Definitely not an off-the-shelf crime thriller
What could be the start of a darkening crime story about guilt and repression is instead told by Alain Guiraudie in a decidedly upbeat tone, without ever really wanting to commit to the rules of a comedy. The main character is played by Félix Kysyl as an impenetrable, seductive charmer with tousled hair on his forehead. His facial features are soft and relaxed, like those of an innocent child, but also reveal a profound nervousness when thoughts become apparent in them.
Visually, the film also seeks a multi-vocal lightness: camerawoman Claire Mathon, known for her aesthetic refinement techniques of festival cinema hits such as “Portrait of a Young Woman in Flames” or “Saint Omer”, stages the forests and fields surrounding the village as a bucolic kingdom of heaven Earth: In lustful, autumnal shades of green, ocher and brown, nature envelops the residents like an ambiguous fairytale landscape in which all dreams can ultimately be satisfied.

The local priest (Jacques Develay) also protects Jérémie – but he also pursues very personal desires.
“Misericordia” is the Latin word for mercy, and it is this kind of uplifting grace that the characters in most of Alain Guiraudie’s films (“The Stranger at the Lake,” “Nobody’s Hero”) experience in the unrestricted fulfillment of their desires and desires. As a headstrong utopian fantasist, the director doesn't spend long on questions of morality: “A crime doesn't last a lifetime,” the priest sums up in confession. You have to imagine the murderer Jérémie and everyone who covers him out of love and sexual affection as free, happy people.
Conclusion: In “Misericordia” Alain Guiraudie tells a murder case between two old childhood friends as a wonderfully lively fable about the fulfillment of desires.