The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq

One of France's most famous novelists sportingly sends himself up in this comedy drama inspired by real-life events. In 2011, Michel Houellebecq (who is celebrated as much for his contentious views as for his writing) vanished for several days and rumours started spreading that he had been kidnapped by al-Qaeda. No adequate reason has ever been given for his disappearance, but here writer/director Guillaume Nicloux playfully posits that Houellebecq was abducted by an inexpert trio (bodybuilder Maxime Lefrançois, mixed martial artist Mathieu Nicourt, and their nominal boss, Luc Schwarz), who chained him to a bed in the deepest Parisian suburbs while they waited for their unseen client to dictate ransom terms. The result resembles a Gallic take on a Quentin Tarantino-directed episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, as the amusingly grouchy Houellebecq enters into discussions on a range of weighty and trivial topics over wine and cigarettes with his captors. Witty, pithy and surprising, these exchanges are consistently entertaining and provide a deceptively sharp insight into both human nature and contemporary French society.