The Stranger

French master director François Ozon (Autumn in Burgundy) has cast himself on Albert Camus's seminal novel 'The Stranger'.

A powerful tale of an emotionally distanced young man who, accused of murder, is put on trial in French-colonized Algeria. In the summer of 1938. Meursault (Benjamin Voisin, known from Ozon's 'The Summer of '85', among others) is a quiet and modest clerk in his early thirties. Already the day after his mother's funeral, he begins a relationship with colleague Marie (Rebecca Marder), whom he meets by chance at the local lake bath - after which he quickly slips back into everyday routines. But his existence is disrupted by the unruly Raymond (an excellent Pierre Lottin, known from 'For Full Music'), who drags Meursault into a conflict around a former mistress. On an excruciatingly hot afternoon on the beach, an incident occurs that is going to change Meursault's fate forever. With its sensuous black-and-white imagery, Ozon's elegant and expertly staged film is a visually sumptuous reinterpretation of Camus's classic tale of alienation and morality. The film casts a contemporary look at the work, capturing both the beauty and the sultry warmth of a society at boiling point.

Director: François Ozon
Starring: Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin
Genre: Drama, Crime
Running time: 122 min.
Age limit: Allowed for children over 11
Original title: L'Étranger