Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.What are the chances? Two French films in consecutive weeks, both involving death, desire and the perils of the mushroom season — released in spring, at that. After François Ozon’s When Autumn Falls, here is the latest from another writer-director known for mischievous exploration of gay life. Alain Guiraudie had an art-house hit in 2013 with his relatively straightforward murder drama Stranger by the Lake, but most of his films are odder and more elusive. Misericordia is no exception — at once a crime thriller, a philosophical musing on guilt and redemption, and a deadpan rural bedroom farce.The glum yet faintly impish Félix Kysyl plays Jérémie, a young man who returns to a village in southern France after the death of his mentor, the local baker. He is invited to stay by Martine, the baker’s widow; she is played by Catherine Frot, a popular mainstream name in France, whose face suggests a weary tenderness. But not everyone appreciates Jérémie’s presence — and before long, two local cops (clueless, or sneakily astute in the time-honoured Columbo style?) are making inquiries.Meanwhile the local priest crops up at every turn, and seems to know the score on everything, including passion. Played by Jacques Develay, who has a particularly startling comic scene, he is no one’s standard idea of the “hot priest”. But then Guiraudie is very democratic when it comes to depicting lust, not least involving stout men of a certain age; another is Walter (David Ayala), a slobbish local with a priceless “Who, me?” look of bewilderment.Misericordia plays like a languid, strangely claustrophobic absurdist joke, but at its heart are a moral seriousness and sly moral subversion, lightly pitched. As long as you’re not allergic to mushrooms — or clerical indiscretions — Misericordia is a very genial offering from a singular auteur.★★★★☆In UK cinemas from March 28
