AFFFF26: Maigret and the Dead Lover

Australian Premiere

Maigret et le mort amoureux

Following the breakout success of 2025 hit The Stolen Painting, acclaimed writer/director Pascal Bonitzer brings his unique perspective and panache to Simenon’s cherished Parisian detective – a French counterpart to Agatha Christie’s Poirot – as he attempts to solve the murder of a diplomat with a long-held secret.

Inspector Maigret (four-time César nominee Denis Podalydès, in a tremendous performance) is urgently summoned to the Quai d’Orsay: a former ambassador has been found shot dead by his long-serving housekeeper (Anne Alvaro, The Taste of Others). But rather than contact the police, she has followed diplomatic protocols by first informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Forewarned that he will find a series of salacious letters – and cautioned to be discreet – Maigret heads to the victim’s opulent apartment. He finds no forensic evidence at the crime scene, but certainly, the letters prove startling – secret, decades-spanning correspondence between the ambassador and the Princess of Vuynes, whose own husband, by strange coincidence, has also just died…

Bonitzer, renowned for an intuitive and empathetic focus, finds a perfect match with a protagonist who relies on quiet observation. He delivers an absorbing, wholly compelling mystery that also serves as a thoughtful examination of modern life’s key concerns: hierarchy, aging, and the very different worlds that money creates. Best of all, the twist ending is… a killer.