The Vourdalak

The Vourdalak (Le Vourdalak) is a 2023 French horror-drama film co-written and directed by Adrien Beau, at his feature film debut. It premiered at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival.

The film is based on the 1839 Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's novella The Family of the Vourdalak.

Plot
In 18th-century Eastern Europe, a courtier and envoy of the King of France, Marquis Jacques Saturnin du Antoine, knocks on a stranger's door in the middle of the night, having lost his horse and companions through being robbed. The stranger does not let him inside, but advises him to go to the house of a man named Gorcha. En route through the forest the following morning, Jacques Antoine sees Gorcha's daughter Sdenka singing, but she leaves at his approach. He then meets Gorcha's youngest son, Piotr, who reluctantly takes him to the house.

Gorcha's elder son, Jegor, arrives home, having spent the past month seeking revenge against the Turks who pillaged the village. He lives there with his wife Anja, his son Vlad, Piotr, and Sdenka. Gorcha, however, is missing. Piotr and Sdenka reveal that Gorcha left to fight the Turks, and had said that if he had not returned within six days it would be because he had died fighting; if he should return after those six days, he would have become a vourdalak and nobody should let him in. Jegor dismisses this as absurd, not believing in vourdalaks. He also knows where a horse for Jacques Antoine can be found, but it would have to wait until the next day.

It is later revealed that Sdenka fell in love with a traveller, and because everyone in the area knows, she now cannot get married. Jacques Antoine approaches Sdenka, who refuses to talk about vourdalaks. He aggressively tries to seduce her but she tricks him into almost falling off a cliff. She had arranged to meet the traveller at the cliff so they would flee together, but someone found out and killed him.

That evening, six days since Gorcha left, Anja spots him, looking like a corpse and lying at the edge of the forest. Piotr's dog will not stop barking at him, and Jegor compels Piotr to shoot it. Gorcha reveals the severed head of the leader of the band of Turks, whom Jegor had failed to kill.

That night, Jacques Antoine has nightmares about Gorcha. The following day, Gorcha is nowhere to be seen and Vlad is unwell. Jegor looks for Gorcha while Sdenka and Piotr, with Jacque Antoine's help, sharpen a stake and perform a ritual on Vlad. Piotr explains that vourdalaks prefer to drink the blood of their close family, those they love the most.

That night, Jacques Antoine sees Vlad walking outside. He appears to be sleepwalking, and Gorcha is nearby, chewing on his shroud. Jacques Antoine attempts to subdue Gorcha, who hurls him against a tree before drinking Vlad's blood. Jacques Antoine awakens the next morning and finds the family digging a grave for Vlad's dead body.

During the funeral, Piotr and Sdenka encourage Jegor to drive the stake through Vlad's heart; but Gorcha interrupts him, reproaching the family for the boy's death. Piotr attempts to attack Gorcha with the stake, but loses his nerve. Gorcha implies to Sdenka that it was he himself who was responsible for shooting her lover.

Gorcha compels Jacques Antoine and Sdenka to dance for him. Piotr, whose supposed effeminacy was previously criticised by his brother and father, appears wearing lipstick and a garland of flowers, wanting to kill Gorcha, who immediately shoots him dead. Blaming Jacques Antoine for the family's recent misfortunes, Jegor beats him. He announces that Jacques Antoine will be given a horse the next morning, and then must leave to never return; if he comes back, Jegor will kill him.

Jegor leaves Jacques Antoine bound in the cellar for the night, and he is woken by Vlad calling for his mother. Through a window, he sees Vlad walking towards Anja; Jacques Antoine tries to warn her to stay away, but she rushes to her son. They embrace, and he drinks her blood. In the morning, Sdenka approaches Jacques Antoine, declaring that the time has come for her to throw herself from the cliff as her brother was the only thing keeping her alive. She then leaves.

Jegor and Anja, now a vourdalak, give Jacques Antoine a horse. In the woods, however, he cannot find Sdenka. Returning to the house that evening, Jacques Antoine believes he sees her singing in a bedroom. He again tries to convince her to leave, but instead she seduces him, and they start having sex. However, Jacques Antoine discovers he is actually interacting with Gorcha, who has been drinking his blood. Jacques Antoine stakes Gorcha and stumbles into the dining room, where Jegor and his vampirized brother, wife and son are seated seated around a table. Jacques Antoine sets the house on fire and rides away.

At dawn, he finds Sdenka standing at the edge of the cliff. He implores her not to jump, saying that he does not have much time left, but that she can be free. He gives her his horse and a map of Europe, and jumps off the cliff. Sdenka rides away, chewing a shroud. A French duchess later takes her in.

Cast

 * Kacey Mottet Klein as  Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfe
 * Ariane Labed as Sdenka
 * Grégoire Colin as Jegor
 * Vassili Schneider as Piotr
 * Claire Duburcq as Anja
 * Gabriel Pavie as Vlad
 * Erwan Ribard as The Hermit
 * Adrien Beau as Gorcha (voice)

Production
The film is based on the 1839 Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's gothic novella The Family of the Vourdalak. It is shot in Super 16mm. The soundtrack is inspired to Nino Rota's score in Fellini's Casanova.

Release
The film premiered in the International Critics' Week section at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.