In 2023, Belgian filmmaker Claude Schmitz, who has attracted widespread attention with his short and medium-length films (Jean Vigo Prize in 2019 for Carwash [+lee también:
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entrevista: Claude Schmitz
ficha de la película] during the Director’s Fortnight, a genre-bending crime thriller about the death of heroes and the rise of heroines. Alongside the film's heroes, we discover two secondary but nonetheless irresistible characters, Francis Conrad and Alain Crab; good-natured cops with colourful language, who conduct their investigation with cigarettes in their mouths while discussing life and death, love and friendship.

The two friends are back in this new film, Conrad & Crab – Idiotic Gems, presented in the Harbour section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which follows their move from Perpignan to this small town in Alsace, where they are hired to provide security for the International Mineral Show. They approach the mission calmly, each driven by motivations that are more personal than professional: one wants to find love again, the other wants to find it for the first time. Just as they are beginning to settle in, a stone disappears. The investigation begins, slowly but (not too) surely.

During their investigations, Crab & Conrad encounter a stream of villagers who are either witnesses or suspects, and they gradually build up a portrait of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines through its inhabitants. A naturalistic study of the place takes form, through the authenticity of the settings and characters, where fiction rears its head from time to time, reminding us of our two heroes, who sporadically resume their investigation with varying degrees of diligence.

It is clear that this stolen gemstone is a MacGuffin, as neither the protagonists nor the audience care much about knowing the outcome of the mystery. It is not so much the solution to the enigma that interests us, but rather the twists and turns of the investigation, and especially its detours. The film thus regularly shows shots of Francis Conrad walking through the village, along a deserted country road, following in his footsteps and giving a unique tempo to this eminently provincial detective film. The investigation moves slowly, and the film focuses on lost moments rather than those that move it forward, letting the music (often out of sync) accelerate the rhythm, creating surprising breaks that give rise to both love and melancholy.

In the roles of Crab and Conrad, we find Rodolphe Burger and Francis Soetens, actors in transit, freed from the conventions of film acting; the former is primarily a musician, the latter is a long-time theatre companion of the director. Each imposes his own phrasing and gestures, giving a unique flavour to the fiction that unfolds in the interspaces of reality. On a knife-edge, the film documents a territory, but also the celebrated bodies of two actors of circumstance, invited to live within the frame, with a fictional mission but an aura of truth. While L’Autre Laurens fully embraces the crime thriller genre, pushing it to its limits and exploding its tropes, Conrad & Crab – Idiotic Gems is a slow-burning, topographical crime story, immersing two outsiders in an environment far from hostile and documenting their encounter through a handful of fictional devices.

Conrad & Crab – Idiotic Gems was produced by Wrong Men (Belgium), and co-produced by Chevaldeuxtrois (France). International sales are handled by Best Friend Forever.