The Girl with a Bracelet

Eighteen-year-old Lise is accused of murdering her closest friend. After two years at home under an electronic bracelet, the trial begins. The film happens almost entirely in the courtroom and never tells you whether she did it. Stephane Demoustier wrote and directed. Melissa Guers plays Lise, Roschdy Zem her father, Chiara Mastroianni her mother, and the director's sister Anais Demoustier the prosecutor. The source is the 2018 Argentine film Acusada, moved here into the French judicial system. The real subject is not the killing but a young woman's sexual life being used as evidence in court. The further the questions drift from the crime the closer they come to morality, and everyone in the room finds that normal. Guers plays her deliberately unreadable; she neither cries nor defends herself, which leaves the viewer alone with their own prejudice. The camera is still, there is no music and no dramatic underlining. Who it is for: viewers who like courtroom drama and films about the act of judging. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for a verdict; the film leaves it to you on purpose.