Bonne conduite (2023)

Former psychologist Pauline Cloarec became a road-safety instructor in Brittany after a reckless driver crashed into her car, killing her partner, Dorian, instantly. Since then, Pauline has run driver’s-license point-recovery courses with Soazig, one of her friends. However, the young woman is hiding a secret. At night, behind the wheel of a Subaru Impreza, she hunts down her most speed-hungry trainees and kills them to stop other people from dying because of their dangerous driving. Pauline is also impatiently awaiting the release of Jean-Claude Lalouette, the man who killed Dorian, so she can take revenge. During yet another course, Pauline spots Jean-Yves Lapick, a self-important industrialist whom she singles out as her next victim. By mistake, Pauline forgets to put on her balaclava during the attack, but kills Lapick by making his car crash and explode below a cliff. To her great surprise, Lapick turns up at the course the next morning, explaining that he has had a road accident. Meanwhile, Commander Kervella and his colleague, Captain Giordano, investigate the crash and find a burned but living man in the car’s trunk. Pauline continues her crusade against reckless drivers, though she cannot understand why Lapick has not turned her in. The man is waiting for her at home and explains that he was thrown from his car because he was not wearing his seat belt. Pauline’s intervention has put him in a difficult position, since the man in the trunk, Bellec, owns the car and is his mule, tasked with transporting cannabis. Lapick has followed Pauline and filmed her nighttime escapades. He tells her to take Bellec’s place and deliver a shipment to the Irish gang, or he will show the evidence to the police. Before leaving, he also takes the urn containing Dorian’s ashes as additional insurance. At the hospital, Kervella and Giordano question Bellec. Before dying, he manages to utter only a phrase which the investigators, drawing on their film knowledge, interpret as “Keyser Söze,” without finding any connection to their case. To avoid Lapick as much as possible, Pauline accepts an invitation from Élouan, a recently divorced oyster farmer who fell in love with her during one of the courses. The two hit it off, and Pauline begins to grieve for Dorian. Meanwhile, Kervella and Giordano have traced the case back to the training center and question Pauline and Soazig. A racing enthusiast, Soazig tells them she owned a Subaru Impreza, but it was stolen the previous year. Pauline panics and tries, unsuccessfully, to make the car disappear in a pond. When she gets home, the police question her again and, thanks to the clues they have, are now convinced that Soazig is the killer. Although Lalouette’s release is approaching, Pauline has to act as a mule and deliver the shipment to the Irish gang’s hideout. Just after she leaves, Lapick is tortured by Bellec’s cousins, who want to avenge his death and recover the money from the deal. Using the GPS Lapick has been using to track Pauline, the Bellecs follow her and shoot at a caravan, thinking she is inside, before they are killed by the Irish. In fact, the gang leader’s dog had swallowed the GPS. At the same time, Kervella and Giordano question Soazig, backing her into a corner, but she has an alibi for the night of the murder: they discover that she is “Cement Man,” the person who cements over the region’s speed cameras, which explains why she was more than an hour’s drive away on the night Bellec was murdered. When Pauline returns with the Irish gang’s money, she keeps out of sight as she passes her home and sees all the police cars. After searching the house, the police find her notebooks, in which she broods over her revenge, as well as trophies from her nighttime hunts, leaving no doubt about her guilt. The next day, when Élouan climbs into his van, he finds a note from Pauline explaining that she will use the money to pay off his debts. The police, meanwhile, are staking out Brest prison, convinced Pauline will show up to kill Lalouette. In reality, Pauline is at the harbor, armed with a gun, confronting Lapick. He throws Dorian’s ashes into the sea, and Pauline is knocked into the water. Lapick fires in her direction. The police are alerted over the radio by the gunshots. At first, they want to stay put, still thinking Pauline is going to arrive, but once they learn the details, they quickly abandon their hiding place to arrest Lapick. Along the way, they discover that “Le,” badly pronounced, is the name of one of his boats: the Kaer Soazig. Pauline, meanwhile, escapes them once again, steals a vehicle, and follows Lalouette to a country road. Just as she is about to kill him, Lalouette tells her he is not the real killer; it was his son. On the night of the crash, the boy, drunk and high, had taken his father’s car to impress a girl. To stop him from ruining the best years of his life, Lalouette had confessed in his place. Shortly before Lalouette was released, his son had died at that very spot after speeding. Dejected, Pauline leaves, unsure what to do. A few months later, Pauline, happy and having managed to evade the police, has settled on the island of Sein, near Audierne, where she waits for Élouan and his son to join her.