Ghost Trail

Hamid taught literature in Aleppo. He was arrested, held in prison and tortured. He lost his wife and daughter. He now lives in France and has an ordinary job by day. At night he does something else: he belongs to a secret group formed by Syrians in exile. The group looks for torturers who fled to Europe; it gathers names, compares photographs, listens to recordings. Hamid picks up the trace of a man. The man lives in Strasbourg and has a normal life. Hamid never saw him; he was blindfolded in prison. All he holds is the voice. To get close he enters the man's life. Jonathan Millet directs; it is his first feature. Adam Bessa plays Hamid; Tawfeek Barhom is in the cast. It is a French production. It opened Critics' Week at Cannes on 15 May 2024 and competed for the Caméra d'Or. The narrative starts from real events; the tracing networks set up by Syrians in exile and Sednaya prison form its ground. The tension it builds is about recognition; Hamid cannot be certain and the possibility of being wrong stands in every scene. The film does not show violence; there is no scene of torture and the past is carried only as sound and absence. Adam Bessa's performance is closed in and carries the whole picture. Its limit is pace; the narrative is slow, there is little event, and the expectation of a thriller is not met. Who it is for: viewers who like cold thrillers and European cinema on political ground. Who it is not for: it is slow, the subject heavy, and the ending offers no satisfaction.