Bruno Dumont • 2014 • France
Bruno Dumont's four-part miniseries plies the conventions of the serial murder-mystery to satirize social and political realities in present-day France.
A bovine carcass is discovered inside a WWII bunker nestled along the windswept coast of Northern France. The droll Captain Van der Weyden and his assistant Carpentier are sent to investigate, intersecting with a gang of young pranksters at the scene of the crime. An autopsy reveals the dismembered remains of a human body stuffed inside the beast, soon identified as belonging to the wife of a local farmer. The impish Quinquin and his friends continue to make trouble as the investigation unfolds; meanwhile, a second cow surfaces on the beach.
Li'l Quinquin premiered at Cannes, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastián, Toronto, and Tromsø, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.