Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Ellie Foumbi
Our Father, the Devil (Mon père, le diable; France, 2023) is a riveting mystery thriller centering on trauma and revenge. Star Babetida Sadjo gives a phenomenal performance that is reason alone to watch this impactful film — though there are several other reasons, as well.
Sadjo toplines as African refugee Marie, a chef in a care home for seniors who holds a close relationship with Jeanne (Martine Amisse), a resident at the facility who was Marie’s culinary instructor. Much to the chagrin of Jeanne’s grandson, Jeanne bequeaths her rural home and land to Marie while still alive, handing her the keys one day much to the latter’s surprise.
Soon thereafter, charismatic priest Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane) arrives, charming residents and employees of the care home alike, except for Marie — who immediately believes him to be the African warlord who savagely killed the other members of her family. After she commits an impulsive act of violence on the priest, she brings him to the rural house and what follows is a grueling ordeal as Marie seeks vengeance on him, as he claims innocence.
Giving away more of the plot would be heading into spoiler territory, which naturally I will not do here. I will state that writer/director Ellie Foumbi has crafted a crushing cinematic work that addresses trauma, the seeking of revenge, the possibility of humans changing and of redemption and forgiveness, and the moral dilemma of when what a person does makes them as bad as the person who inflicted violence and pain on them — if indeed that person is who the other thinks it is.
Foumbi’s feature assured, remarkable directorial debut is a powerful work, featuring mystery heightened by some shots that don’t reveal what viewers might normally expect to see explicitly revealed to them, magnificent cinematography by Tinx Chan, stellar work from its cast members, and — it is worth repeating — a sensational lead performance from Sadjo.
Review by Joseph Perry
Our Father, the Devil, from Cineverse and Fandor, opened on August 25, 2023, in New York City at the Quad Cinema and opens September 1 in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal.
