So Help Me God

Anne Gruwez is an investigating magistrate in Brussels. There are files in her office, some of them years old. Twenty years ago two sex workers were killed in a wealthy quarter of the city and the case never closed. Gruwez opens it again. Meanwhile the daily work goes on: interrogations, visits to the morgue, taking statements. People come into her office and she speaks to all of them in the same tone; blunt, direct and funny. The camera follows her. The documentary builds no fiction; the material comes from inside real investigations. Jean Libon directs with Yves Hinant. The magistrate Anne Gruwez is at its centre. It is a Belgian and French production. The directors come from a true crime programme that ran for a long time on Belgian television; the film's manner continues it. The documentary records real statements; the people in the room are not actors. The matter it treats is the everyday state of justice; the film shows not the court but the long, dull process before it. Gruwez's way of speaking is what is most talked about; the magistrate is courteous to nobody. The narrative proceeds in pieces and does not tie to one case. The film drew interest in Belgium and won awards. Its limit is structure; the narrative is scattered, the old case leads nowhere, and the film gives no closure. Who it is for: viewers who like true crime documentary and observational cinema. Who it is not for: it is scattered, blunt, and the ending offers no resolution.