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Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Daniel Prévost | ... | Monsieur Joseph | |
Julie-Marie Parmentier | ... | Tina | |
Serge Riaboukine | ... | Commissaire Boucheron | |
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Catherine Davenier | ... | Martine Palestri |
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Franckie Defonte | ... | Fred |
Jean-François Gallotte | ... | Julien | |
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Eric Beauchamp | ... | Pepito |
Jean-Pol Brissart | ... | Le prête | |
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Bernard Graczyk | ... | Fayard |
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Peggy Leray | ... | Marie Gadet |
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Gabrielle Lopes Benites | ... | Zoé |
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Didier Lafaye | ... | Ancel |
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Audrey Beaulieu | ... | Sandrine Delombre |
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Stéphane Van de Rosieren | ... | Vincent Delombre (as Stéphane Vanderosieren) |
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Polerick | ... | Le policier (as Polérik) |
Monsieur Joseph is a respected citizen of a small town in the North of France. For over four decades he has run a specialized bookshop in the shopping square of the town. Every morning before opening his shop, he has a nice cup of black coffee at the local cafe where he has a nice small talk with Julien, the barkeeper, and with the regulars. Everybody likes him. At least everybody did... Everything actually started to change the night his young wife Tina disappeared without trace. Now, Monsieur Joseph has become Youssef again, he is again the "foreigner" (wasn't he born of Kabyle parents?), the shady foreigner, the frightening foreigner... He can't but have murdered his wife, all the more as another woman was killed four years before without the culprit having been arrested. There is no smoke without fire, is there?... Written by Guy Bellinger
An absolutely beautiful written and acted film about the destructive power of hidden racism and the inability to see the complexity of relationships outside the stereotypical norm. And because it's Simenon, suspense keeps it moving.
If I have any criticism, it's just that French TV movies, like American ones, have a fairly boring visual style.
(The film is about a middle-aged Algerian bookseller who is completely assimilated into French life and the life of his town. But when he marries a beautiful young girl--who disappears--he's accused of murdering her.)