Le serpent aux mille coupures

Omar is not a name one would traditionally connect with French wines. That’s at least what too many of the other local winegrowers think; accordingly, they have tried their worst to get rid of him. Into the midst of this otherwise utterly ordinary bit of xenophobia in action stumble a bunch of South American drug goons, who promptly get themselves killed. The hit-man, physically not in great shape, needs a safe place to hide. Like Omar’s farm.
Éric Valette made some of the smartest, as well as gutsiest, crime movies made in France in recent years: the snidely smart political thriller Un affaire d’état can be found elsewhere in this programme, while the serial killer film La proie (2011) should be searched out by any upstanding cinephile. Le serpent aux milles coupures, now, is a true Valette masterpiece of socio-political circumspection and rule-savvy genre craftsmanship that shows how entertainment and enlightenment can still go hand-in-hand!

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