Ellias Barnès (Marc-André Grondin) is the newly-appointed artistic director of a legendary Parisian fashion house. During his opening show, he starts experiencing chest pain. Out of the blue he is called back to Montreal to organise his estranged father’s funeral and discovers that he may have inherited much worse than his father’s weak heart. Highly effective as a claustrophobic thriller and a disturbing contemplation of the darker traits of masculinity, Xavier Legrand’s follow up to Custody, his exceptional debut from 2017, matches that film for visceral tension and audience-jolting surprises.

Notes by David O’Mahony.

Screening as part of IFI French Film Festival 2024.