The Bastards

A supertanker captain seeks revenge on a businessman reputed to have destroyed his family, but uncovers a shocking secret that complicates his plan in this labyrinthine thriller from director Claire Denis. Veteran seaman Marco (Vincent Lindon) is commanding a vessel for the French Navy when he receives an urgent message summoning him back to Paris. Informed that his brother-in-law Jacques (Laurent Grévill) has taken his own life and Jacques’ daughter Justine (Lola Créton) is in the hospital, Marco returns to the city to find his enraged sister Sandra (Julie Bataille) laying the blame for the failure of the family’s shoe manufacturing business — and the devastating fallout that resulted — on shady financier Edouard Laporte (Michel Subor). Determined to see that Laporte pays for his crimes after the police dismiss her claims, Marco moves into the building where the entrepreneur’s mistress Raphaelle (Chiara Mastroianni) resides with her son (Yann Antione Bizette), eventually luring the woman into a clandestine affair. Just as Marco’s revenge plot begins to take form, however, a revelation about his sister Sandra hints that there may be more to this story than she has previously revealed.