Suffused with elemental images—fire, sky, sea, land—Bruno Dumont’s latest provocation concerns an unnamed drifter disturbing the balance in a seaside town. The mysterious man becomes involved with a young villager, also nameless, but his interest lies more in protecting her from men he sees as predatory than anything romantic. A series of violent deaths in the area brings suspicion on the visitor from local police and residents, but others are drawn to him as a sort of Pied Piper figure. As increasingly strange events—some bordering on miraculous—occur, Dumont once again demonstrates his mastery of form and tone and his interest in both the sacred and the profane.


Written by Bruno Dumont, Photographed by Yves Cape. With David Dewaele, Alexandra Lemâtre, Valérie Mestdagh, Sonia Barthélémy (109 min, In French with subtitles, New Yorker Films).