The Forgiven

The Forgiven follows a wealthy London couple, David and Jo Henninger, who are driving through the Moroccan desert toward a weekend party at a friend's grand villa in the High Atlas Mountains. On the road they hit and kill a local teenager, and rather than face the consequences they try to conceal what happened, helped by a deal with local police. When the boy's father arrives seeking justice, he asks one thing of David, who was at the wheel: that he travel into the desert to bury the son according to local custom. The accident and its aftermath draw in the other guests at the villa as well as the Moroccans living around them.

John Michael McDonagh wrote, directed and produced the film, his fourth feature after The Guard, Calvary and War on Everyone. Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain lead the cast as David and Jo, with Matt Smith, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee and Christopher Abbott among the twenty credited performers. Released in July 2022, the drama runs 117 minutes and was made by British, Moroccan and American companies including Focus Features, Film4 Productions and the BFI.

It earned about 1 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from roughly 12,000 votes; on TMDB it has 5.7 from around 270 votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 from 132 reviews sits essentially level with the IMDb audience figure, while the much smaller TMDB sample is slightly lower.