The Stranger (French: L’Étranger) is a 2025 drama film written and directed by François Ozon, based on the 1942 novel by Albert Camus. It had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September (where it was nominated for the Golden Lion) and was released in the UK on 10 April.

Existentialism is the branch of philosophy that explores an individual’s struggle to lead an authentic life, despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. L’Étranger is considered by many to be the ultimate existentialist novel. Camus would not have liked this label – he considered himself to be an Absurdist, as opposed to an Existentialist. Confused? I guess, to an extent, that is the point.

Mersault (Benjamin Voisin) does not waste his time seeking some deeper meaning in existence; he simply accepts that life is absurd and ultimately futile. Consequently, he lives his life without reference to any meaning or higher power, he just gets on with the living of it. He has no great drive or ambition to better himself, one life is much like another, and so when offered the possibility of career advancement, he rejects it offhandedly.

However, he does have his own morality, in that he does not judge others and he is unscrupulously honest. When his girlfriend, Marie (Rebecca Marder), asks him if he loves her, he tells her the word doesn’t mean anything. When his friend Raymond (Pierre Lottin) beats his mistress, he neither intervenes nor changes his opinion of him, presumably because he has no right to an opinion. When his neighbour Salamano (Denis Lavant) kicks his dog, he does not interfere, nor does he make any effort to understand. And when he himself shoots an Arab boy for no real reason, he simply accepts that he has done the deed and that the law must take its course.

However, living outside of societal norms brings its own difficulties. In a world where an Arab life is considered cheap (French Algeria in the first half of the twentieth century), many do not condemn him for the murder. However, the fact that he did not cry at his own mother’s funeral and within twenty-four hours had been to see a comedy film at the cinema and begun a casual sexual relationship with Marie is simply unacceptable: Mersault does not judge the world, but the world is happy to judge him.

In his adaptation, Ozon has been extremely faithful to Camus’s original. The stark black and white filming lends itself well to the sensuality of the novel and is particularly effective in the swimming scenes and in the portrayal of the murder itself. Voisin is excellent in the central role and is well supported by both Marder and Lottin.

If you have read the novel, I think you will find the film a rewarding experience; it is over forty years since I read it, and the film has refreshed my memories of it perfectly. If you have not read it, no film ever quite does justice to the printed word, however this one gets very close indeed. This is a film not to missed.