The Stranger (15)

François Ozon (8 Women, Swimming Pool, Under the Sand) delivers a stunning adaptation of Albert Camus’ existentialist classic.

Algiers, 1938. An unassuming man in his early thirties, Meursault (Benjamin Voisin, who also starred in Ozon’s Summer of 85) attends his mother’s funeral, at which he does not cry. The next day, he begins a casual affair with his colleague Marie (Rebecca Marder) and slips back into his usual routine. But life is soon disrupted by his neighbour Sintès (Pierre Lottin), who draws Meursault into his shady dealings. Then, one blisteringly hot Until one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event occurs on a beach...

Shot in sculptural black-and-white, dreamy and detached, The Stranger shines a fascinating contemporary lens on Camus’ tale of alienation and mystery, capturing a charged society on the boil.