Director: Dominik Moll
Starring: Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners
Distributor: Potential Films
Runtime: 115 mins. Reviewed in Oct 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

| |

Rating notes: Mature themes, violence, coarse language and sexual references

How do detectives handle crime investigations, especially when they do not have enough evidence to close a case? The personal investment, the emotional cost? A solid drama in a French Alpine setting.

Most audiences enjoy crime investigation stories. This one is well told. However, while it is based on actual events, it is sympathetic to the point of view of police and detectives working on unsolved cases and the frustration in not being able to solve them.

This film has the advantage of attractive settings, from the police precinct in Grenoble to villages in the surrounding country and some majestic scenes of the Alpine terrain.

The audience is invited into the action with two openings: a squad celebrating the retirement of its esteemed chief and the transition to a new commander Le capitaine Yohan Vives; and the murder of a young girl Clara (Lula Cotton-Frapier).

The work of the new commander (Bouillon) is highlighted and intertwined with the audience’s increasing knowledge about the murdered girl’s character and background. Yohan offers to break the tragic news to the parents but his eyes are caught by a photo portrait of the murdered girl with her pet cat on the wall, and he goes blank, very much affected. And this drives him throughout the investigation.

In many ways, the screenplay is a painstaking following of the investigation, the various interviews, the parents, the best friend (who does want to protect her friend’s reputation and is slow in forthcoming with possible suspects), workplace contacts . . .

And the screenplay continues to fascinate the audience with a succession of possible suspects, former boyfriends, a hostile rap-song composer who is asked to sing his song which has direct reference to the manner of the girl’s death, a local bystander who sends the cigarette lighter to the police, a man charged with violence against his former wife but who is protected by his girlfriend’s testimony in his favour. We realise that each of these men could be the killer – or not.

And this takes its toll on Yohan, sometimes morose, often angry, taciturn, releasing his pent-up energies by fast cycling in a velodrome. He does work well with his men though is critical of some of their stances. But, the significant other character is the middle-aged Marceau (veteran Belgian actor Lanners), wanting to have a child with his wife whom he loves but who now wants a divorce because she is pregnant from a new liaison. There is a powerful sequence where he gets into Yohan’s car and just tells him the story, then leaves. Later Marceau will be so frustrated that he will hurry to interview one of the suspects, becoming physically violent with him.

Three years pass, a judge becomes interested in the case, summoning Yohan who now has a new team, especially having a female detective as part of the team, reflecting that this kind of crime is perpetrated by men against women, and is chiefly investigated by men. She indicates hope-for changing attitudes.

On the anniversary of Clara’s death, there is surveillance, and some dramatic moments.

So, the audience is invited to share the life and work of the detectives, the details of their work, interviews, reports, speculation, and the frustrations that continually hinder the completion of their work.