Cold case. A term that sends shivers down a cop’s spine.
Unsolved, unavenged, justice denied. Sooner or later, every police investigator comes across a case that remains unsolved and that haunts him.
For Yohan, a detective newly in charge of a homicide squad, Clara’s murder proves to be that case. What starts as a thorough investigation into the victim’s life soon turns into a nagging obsession. One interrogation follows another, there is no shortage of suspects and Yohan has more and more doubts. Only one thing is sure, the crime occurred on the night of the 12th.
THE NIGHT OF THE 12th is an intriguing, compelling murder mystery that grabs audiences by the lapel from it’s gruesome, horrendous beginning to its festering wound of a denouement.
Director Dominik Moll drives a mesmerising, mosaic movie that ultimately remains a mystery, clues add up to a solution and are then subtracted suddenly, suspicions multiply, opinions divided, solution unresolved.
Groping around in the dark, we sense their doubts and perceive their growing anxiety. One of the investigators, Marceau, a big bear of a man who believes in love and in the power of French poetry, feels that his job is filling him with hate, clouding his professionalism, catastrophically impacting upon his personal life.
Shot in the Grenoble area and the environs of the Maurienne Valley, THE NIGHT OF THE 12th is a police procedural with a difference, told in two distinct acts. The first act tackles the initial investigation that ends with plenty of suspects but no clear cut perpetrator.
In the final part of the film, after an interval of almost three years, a new judge, a woman, asks Yohan to resume the investigation he had to give up. Their exchange on “what is amiss between men and women” has a decisive place in the film’s development, as does Nadia, the new recruit to the squad.
Gender is on the agenda as the investigation concerns a horrific crime against a woman, and each lead seems to reflect a sexist perception of the victim. The judge and Nadia, each bringing in fresh energy and a new perspective, allow Yohan to keep going, continuing to believe and pursuing his task tirelessly is the only way to solve the case one day.
One can only hope for a sequel and justice for all.