Nerve wracking, nail biting, spine chilling, breath holding, heart pumping, pulse quickening – NOVEMBRE is a perfect anatomical model of a suspense film.

NOVEMBRE begins like a spy flick, then quickly morphs into a sensational police procedural.

From a Middle East hot spot to a Paris targeted by terrorists, NOVEMBRE is an exceptional high tension tightrope walk.

The use of the song Sorrow sung by David Bowie after the pre title sequence carries both foreboding and a counterpoint irony.

In a nutshell, NOVEMBRE is about the intense investigation into the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. It’s cat and mouse, race against the clock stuff that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Directed by Cedric Jimenez, NOVEMBRE boasts an elite acting ensemble led by Jean Dujardin as the field commander of the anti terrorist squad. Sandrine Kiberlain as his supportive and sympathetic superior officer is singularly good.

Outstanding also is Anais Desmoutier as the rookie cop whose initiative though intuitively applaudable threatens to jeopardise due process and Lyna Khoudri as the reluctant informer, conflicted in her loyalties and with little confidence in the authorities.

Screenwriter Olivier Demangel’s script is taut, tense and terrifying and Jimenez’s direction is dauntless, the movie is a relentless marauder of the high stakes involved – the obligation of result and the fear of disaster coursing through every frame.

NOVEMBER is a study in coherence and cohesiveness in the face of chaos, of a populace in shock, which may have kept panic at bay, and a police force dealing with the shock wave, tirelessly fighting time to thwart further atrocities.

Days are compressed into 107 exhilarating, electrifying and exhausting minutes, climaxing in a gut wrenching finale. If there is a more suspenseful film released this year, I want to see it. Fasten your seat belts.