The Night of the 12th * * * *

A couple of years ago Director Dominik Moll gave us Only the Animals which greatly impressed me with its multiple stories.  This is more confined than that extraordinary film, but it remains one of the best police detective films I have seen in a long time.

It is loosely based upon a true story regarding a police investigation into a heinous murder.  

In the ski-resort areas of France a young woman walks home alone at night when someone steps out of the shadows, asks her to confirm her name - Clara - then kills her in the most awful way.

At the police HQ we see a new Captain, Yohan, being appointed as the new leader of the Crime Squad. We are immediately impressed by his diligence.  The case looks like it shouldn't be too hard. But every obvious suspect has a strong alibi. Even so, when some of them are being interviewed they would send a chill down your spine with their indifference. 

Yohan says, "Piss off Poirot! This is real.

There are two stories  here: One is the police work, and the effect it is having on two detectives in particular, as every lead becomes a dead end. Then there is the victim, but her story is told to us in words, for we never see her again after the murder.  There are no flashbacks, no friends discussing her privately. The only thing we learn about her is through the police interviews.

Really she was just a sweet girl in her early twenties.  With her warm family home in the misty mountain town she was a bit like a Twin Peaks character.  Mostly she still lived at home with her loving parents.  But she liked to be adventurous with her sexuality.  In their investigations the police learn she was sleeping around for fun, sometimes with unsavoury and rough characters just to see what it was like. But these are the leads the police are given and must follow. There is a beautiful and telling scene where Clara's best friend reminds the police "She was more than that, yet that is all you ask about". But where else can they search for the person who did this to her?

As the story progresses the despair and agony of not bringing closure weighs heavily on the investigating officers, until they are forced to put the case aside.  Captain Yohan takes it personally: more senior officers tell him it is inevitable. All crime squad detectives are ultimately haunted by an unsolvable case.

Three years pass before a Judge is made aware of the case and orders it to be re-opened.  With her power she can assign extra funds.  In the meantime the make-up of the crime squad has changed. Gone is one of the senior investigating officers to be replaced by an enthusiastic female officer.  Will the re-opening bring closure? And how will the Captain handle it if it doesn't?