One of my favourite films of last year, The Master, came under fire from many viewers for what they saw as a lack of narrative. If you subscribe to this opinion, you should avoid Bruno Dumont’s Hors Satan at all costs – at least three quarters of the running time is taken up with its nameless characters walking in aimless silence through the countryside. There is no backstory, no story arc and the deliberately blank performances discourage any insight or empathy. Wilful obscurity is the defining quality of the film, and arguably of Dumont’s whole body of work. And yet, this obscurity, though often frustrating can also be strangely compelling.
The film takes place in a beautiful coastal area of Northern France. Among the sand dunes, close to a small village, lives a man (David Dewaele). He camps nightly beside a fire, existing on food donated to him by villagers. He has formed a close friendship with a local girl (Alexandra Lematre) and the two of them take long walks together. It soon becomes clear that there is an element of the unexplained about this man; he has a reputation amongst the townspeople as a healer and we watch as he performs acts of violence and magic.
So then, without much in the way of coherent narrative, Hors Satan is more a character piece. The problem is, Dewaele’s mysterious drifter could only really be seen as allegorical – but an allegory of what? The power of nature? The divine? There are no concrete answers; the point is though, this puzzle has lingered in my mind since I saw Hors Satan. At the time I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed the viewing experience but it has stayed with me since. Dumont’s use of long shots discourages intimacy with the subjects and forces us to scrutinise rather than empathise. In this way, he has made a provocative film that poses many questions but refuses to offer any easy solutions.
Hors Satan is hard work; glacial in its pace, light on dialogue and frankly, a little absurd. Still, in his absurdity, Dumont is still an interesting and unashamedly cerebral filmmaker.