A couple’s marriage has withered into silent resentment, but fate intervenes with a twisted sense of humor. They discover two million euros in cash in the trunk of a car after the passengers are killed in an accident. Suddenly, they have a reason to talk again, and an even bigger reason to keep quiet as they decide to cover up the incident and keep the money. A film by Franck Dubosc, starring Laure Calamy, Franck Dubosc, Benoît Poelvoorde, Joséphine de Meaux, Kim Higelin, Mehdi Meskar, Emmanuelle Devos, and Anne Le Ny.
Un OURS dans le JURA
How to make a KILLING
Franck Dubosc
(2025)
In the mountains of Jura, Alan (Jeremy Senelier) leads a group of illegal immigrants to retrieve merchandise, presumably drugs. On their way to the destination, they encounter a black bear. The frightened immigrants panic and scatter. The bear becomes agitated by Alan’s presence and lets out a terrifying growl.
Jura is a department located in the eastern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is named after the Jura Mountains and borders Switzerland to the east. The prefecture of Jura is Lons-le-Saunier, and other notable towns include Dole and Saint-Claude. The region is characterized by wooded, rolling mountains and numerous lakes, making it a scenic area known for outdoor activities and distinctive wine production.
Alan fears for his life. He turns and runs as the bear chases him through the snowy mountain forest. While Alan sprints to escape the pursuing bear, he slips between thick fir trees, stumbles, and loses his balance. Tumbling down the hillside, he plunges off a cliff to his death.
Greg (Boris Sirven), Alan’s partner, pulls over to call Iroquois (Louka Meliava) and tell him everything is going according to plan. Iroquois says he’ll meet up with them later.
While driving home, Michel (Franck Dubosc) gets distracted from the road for a moment. Suddenly, he spots a black bear standing in the middle of the road and quickly swerves his pickup truck to avoid it, causing his vehicle to lose its grip on the slippery road. As Michel tries to regain control, the tire hits a rock, sending the vehicle straight into Greg’s car parked on the roadside. The impact causes Greg’s car to strike Greg’s girlfriend, killing her instantly.
Greg climbs back up from the roadside where he had stepped out to urinate. He’s shocked to see his girlfriend’s body lying on the road. His foot slips and he loses his balance, causing him to fall backward and impale himself on a sharp branch protruding from a tree trunk, killing him instantly. Seeing the empty road around him, Michel quietly drives away.
At home with his wife Cathy (Laure Calamy) and their difficult son Doudou (Timéo Mahaut), Michel decides to tell Cathy that he just killed two strangers. He casually mentions they weren’t locals since he’d never seen them before. Michel explains that he lost control of the pickup because there was a bear in the road. Cathy becomes suspicious, insisting there are no bears around here. When Michel maintains he saw one, Cathy asks why he didn’t call the police. Michel admits he didn’t pay his car insurance.
Michel drives Cathy to the spot where he left the bodies to help him wipe his fingerprints off the black BMW he had touched. As they’re about to leave, Cathy spots a luxurious handbag in the car and decides to keep it. Thinking there might be something valuable in the trunk, she pops it open to find a tennis racket and a duffel bag. Curious, she unzips the bag and discovers it’s full of cash hidden under a towel.
As an avid crime novel reader, Cathy hatches a plan to hide the bodies. They load the woman’s body and Greg’s corpse, along with the handbag, duffel bag, and tennis racket, into their vehicle and bring everything back to their house. Unbeknownst to them, forest ranger Gilles (Benoît Tachoires) discovers the BMW and reports to Roland (Benoît Poelvoorde) that he’s found an abandoned car.
At home, Cathy suggests they keep the money hidden and not touch it for now. Michel discovers a pistol in the handbag they took from the car. They panic when Roland knocks on their door to pick up the Christmas tree he bought from them. While Michel takes Roland to the tree he prepared, Roland notices the front-end damage on Michel’s truck and suggests he get it fixed or risk getting fined. Michel lies, saying Doudou was practicing driving and caused the damage. Roland eventually leaves with the fir tree, unaware of the cash in the duffel bag and the two bodies in Michel’s truck bed.
Fearing the bodies might soon be discovered by police, the couple searches the internet for ways to dispose of a body. Cathy gets an idea from her crime novels and takes the bodies to a waterfall, smearing them with honey in hopes of attracting a bear to devour them.
However, when they return to the waterfall the next day, the bodies remain perfectly untouched. Suddenly, Michel spots another frozen body nearby—it’s Alan, who fell off the cliff and was carried to shore by the current. Realizing they can’t get rid of the bodies, and now with another corpse to deal with, Cathy suggests they must make the bodies visible. They load all three corpses back into the black BMW.
Later, Roland receives a call from Gilles reporting that the abandoned car is no longer empty, there are now three dead passengers inside.
Directed by French filmmaker Franck Dubosc from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sarah Kaminsky, Un OURS dans le JURA is a dark comedy that centers around a married couple who stumble upon a bag full of cash that could solve their financial problems. They hilariously try to navigate their way out of trouble as both the police attempt to solve the case and the criminals try to get their money back.
The first half is incredibly entertaining, with the cast delivering wonderful performances without missing a single beat. The absurdity just keeps building and building. However, the story drags somewhat in the middle when it introduces family drama and spends quite a bit of time on scenes where Cathy and Michel use money to create a fake alibi.
The film would benefit from tighter editing to maintain the momentum from beginning to end. Despite the muddled middle section, the film redeems itself in the final act with a satisfying conclusion.
Un OURS dans le JURA premiered at Festival de Cine Francés de Málaga on 13 October 2024. The film was theatrically released in France on 1 January 2025.
