''Accomplices'' (original title: ''Complices'') is a 2009 Franco-Swiss

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

film directed by Frédéric Mermoud. The film premiered in competition at the 2009

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

. It won the Swiss Film Award for Best Screenplay in 2010.

Plot

Two police detectives in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, both single and childless, are investigating the murder of a young man called Vince, whose body is found strangled in the river

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

. It emerges that Vince was a high-end male prostitute, finding clients on the internet and meeting them in hotels. His girlfriend was a student Reb, who he recruited to join him in threesomes, so increasing his range of clients and his earnings. One encounter went wrong when the client started to get rough with Reb, upon which Vince beat him up and the two fled. Furious at the way Reb had been treated, Vince decided to blackmail the man and arranged a rendezvous on the top floor of a multi-storey car park. After handing over the money, the client then attacked Vince with a golf club, upon which Reb waded in with her motorbike helmet. Her blows killed the man, so the two hid his body in his car and fled. Vince's pimp then met him to claim his share of Vince's takings and a fight developed, in which the pimp strangled Vince and then dumped his body in the river. The detectives charge the pimp with murder but not Reb. As she is young, was in love with Vince, is pregnant with his child and her mother is standing by her, they doctor her statement to exonerate her.

Cast

Gilbert Melki Gilbert Melki (; born 12 November 1958) is a French actor. Life and career Nephew of actor Claude Melki ('' The Acrobat''), Melki grew up in a Jewish family from Algeria. His father, an antiques dealer, came from Khenchela in Algeria and his mo ...

as Hervé Cagan *

Emmanuelle Devos Emmanuelle Devos (born 10 May 1964) is a French actress. She is the daughter of actress Marie Henriau. She won the César Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her performance in ''Sur mes lèvres'', directed by Jacques Audiard. She has also been ...

as Karine Mangin *

Cyril Descours Cyril Descours (born 15 July 1983 in Frankfurt) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than twenty feature films since 2000 as well as in French television films and series, and on stage. Career The mother of Cyril Descours was German and he ...

as Vincent Bouvier *

Nina Meurisse Nina Meurisse (born 14 November 1988) is a French actress. Meurisse was ten years old when she had her first lead role in a film. Selected filmography * '' The King's Daughters'' as Lucie de Fontenelle (2000) * '' Accomplices'' as Rebecca Legen ...

as Rebecca Legendre * Joana Preiss as Esther *

Jérémy Kapone Jérémy Kapone (born 16 April 1990) is a French actor, model, singer and songwriter, best known for his role in the French film ''LOL (Laughing Out Loud)'' as Maël. He was a member of the band Kaponz & Spinoza and also wrote a song (Exil) fo ...

as Thomas Morazzini * Marc Rioufol as Jean-Paul Tardieu * Yeelem Jappain as Belen * Clara Ponsot as Lola * Éric Laugérias as Yvan Cagan * Serge Larivière as A client * Anne Loiret as The lawyer * Frédéric Épaud as A client *

Valérie Lang Valérie Suzanne Rose Lang (24 March 1966 – 22 July 2013) was a French actress of stage, screen and television. She was educated at the Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique in Paris under the tutelage of Jean-Pierre Vincent. Lang partook in ...

as Laurence * Jérémy Azencott as Nicolas Bianchini * Olivier Guéritée as Mikaël * Jean-Pierre Sanchez as Karim

Accolades

References

External links

* 2009 films 2009 crime thriller films 2000s French-language films French crime thriller films Swiss crime thriller films Films about prostitution in France Films set in Lyon Films shot in Lyon French-language Swiss films 2000s French films {{crime-thriller-film-stub