Mercenaire
2024 · 15m · Canada
Directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Hired by a pig slaughterhouse through a social reintegration program, an ex-convict desperately tries to find another job while repressing the violence building up in him.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise promises transgression—ex-con, slaughterhouse, repressed violence—but Chevigny seems interested in the *quiet* devastation of reintegration programs that set people up to fail, which is honestly more subversive than a rage-out would've been.
A formally controlled study in social constraint and embodied tension that situates itself squarely in the lineage of European social realism; the editing discipline here—what's *not* shown—recalls the compositional restraint of Haneke or the Dardenne brothers.
The film's entire engine is Chevigny's decision to keep the camera locked on the protagonist's face during mundane job-hunting sequences while the score tightens—that single formal choice turns a social-issue premise into something visceral and original on a modest budget.
Reviews
The short piece is as riveting as anything you'll see anywhere. It is fifteen minutes of a man trapped in hell.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2024, World premiere
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Special Jury Award (International Competition)
- Palm Springs ShortFest, Selection
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2025, Selection