The Madman

With his feature debut, writer-director-producer Akram Adouani weaves a thriller that is a perplexing story of inequality, corruption, revenge, and of course cannibalism…

Like any compelling thriller, this film opens with a corpse. There’s a killer on the loose targeting the city elite and gruesome deaths are piling up across the city. Soon we’re introduced to Fly, a taxi driver portrayed by the moustached Olivier Ross-Parent, who may hold the key to the authorities unravelling the killing spree. We flash back to how Fly met his idealistic friend Otto, who is played with panache by Vlad Alexis. What unfolds is a curious journey into a corrupt world, in which the duo ultimately find themselves thrust into a position where they must fight against injustice.

Adouani is a writer and it shows in a script obsessed with words and a film crammed with books. The Madman is a wholly original revenge thriller that will leave audiences guessing, because nothing is quite what it seems in this beguiling gem.

— Richard B Pierre