Our Paradise 2011

Vassili Stéphane Rideau is an aging Paris hustler who struggles to accept that time is catching up with his trade. A sharp, cutting outburst follows when a client comments on his age, and he strangles him in a moment of raw frustration. That same night, in the Bois de Boulogne, he discovers an unconscious teenager who has been beaten and robbed and can’t recall his name or past. Vassili brings the boy to his apartment and christens him Angelo Dimitri Durdaine, drawn by his angelic appearance and an angel tattoo on his abdomen. The relationship that blooms between them starts as a purely physical bond but gradually deepens into something more romantic, even as it fuels a brutal spree of killings carried out by two men who prey on older or vulnerable men.

As they hustle together, a client asks to have sex only with Angelo and sends Vassili home. Yet Vassili stays hidden in the client’s apartment and kills him after Angelo has left. A later murder unfolds in Angelo’s presence, and he remains disturbingly complicit. Some killings seem driven by Vassili’s need to protect Angelo, while others are sparked by greed or Vassili’s wounded pride. The film then introduces a younger Vassili, a boy living with his mother Anna Béatrice Dalle, a former prostitute who struggles to let go of the past. She named her son after the older man, though he is not his father.

Seeking to escape the crime-scene memories, Vassili and Angelo travel to Lyon and arrive at Anna’s apartment. The younger Vassili, whom he meets as Le petit Vassili Mathis Morisset, is initially afraid that this older Vassili plans to take his mother away, but he soon grows curious after hearing about Vassili and Angelo’s life together. Anna, Angelo and the two Vassilis form a loose, unconventional family, and Vassili takes on a fatherly role to the younger boy.

The trio then move to Victor’s mountain retreat, where Victor Didier Flamand—Vassili’s first client and a kind of paternal figure—lives with his young Moroccan lover Kamel Malik Issolah. Kamel is wary of the outsiders in their circle and threatens to leave Victor if they stay. After some tension, Victor asks for time with Kamel to mend their relationship, and Vassili bluntly observes that Victor remains a client at heart. Tensions culminate in the murders of Victor and Kamel, carried out with Angelo’s help, while the younger Vassili witnesses the act and tows a line between alarm and complicity, promising not to tell anyone.

Anna arrives a few days later, and the three—Anna, Angelo and the two Vassilis—share another intimate moment in a combination of affection and complicity. That night, the younger Vassili hears the moaning and discovers his mother in a vulnerable, possibly unconscious state between the two men. He flees and goes to the police, and by early morning, Vassili and Angelo are in custody. The film closes on a note that ties together the fragile family unit they have formed with the consequences of their violence, leaving a lingering sense of tragedy and moral ambiguity.