The Stranger by François Ozon is an atmospheric adaptation of Camus’ classic.
Out of Place
by Alexa DalbyCAUTION: Here be spoilers
François Ozon has made, in the main, a faithful five-star adaption of Camus’ seminal existential novella. His monochrome film has nailed the anomie of its central character and the blinding, hot sun. Ozon has fleshed out the female characters and the colonial atmosphere and introduced a potential gay element, as he does so often in his films.
Mersault (Benjamin Voison) is a cipher who hardly speaks, except to agree to everything. Dressed in unsuitable tweeds in the heat, he shows no grief at the death of his mother, afterwards going swimming and to the cinema, no joy with his girlfriend/fiancée Marie. Arabs are treated as another species and none of the French colonialists feels any more guilt at killing one – which seems to happen often – than killing an insect.
Mersault shoots an Arab on the beach. In the film the Arab is named Moussa and has a back story, and the killing is homo-erotic, but in the book he is unnamed.
Mersault finally cracks in one of the last scenes. While he is in prison awaiting execution, a priest forces his presence and his religion on him. There follows a philosophical argument and a fight.
Mersault believes life is absurd and meaningless. It would be crass to try to ascribe reasons. Ozon conveys this brilliantly, as do all the brutal and fewer not-brutal characters in French colonial Algiers in the 1930s. It’s atmospheric and haunting.
Most of the actors have appeared in Ozon’s previous films.
The Stranger premiered in Venice, screened at the BFI London Film Festival and is released on 10 April 2026 in the UK and Ireland.
