Three Days and a Life

In a small French town in 1999, twelve-year-old Antoine kills his neighbour's six-year-old son in a moment of anger and hides the body in the woods. The child is treated as missing. A storm hits the town the same day and wrecks the search. Antoine carries it for twelve years. Nicolas Boukhrief directed, from Pierre Lemaitre's novel; the author worked on the screenplay. The subject is not the crime but guilt. The film builds no mystery; who did it is clear from the start and the tension comes from the fear of being found out. The second part takes place twelve years later and follows the adult Antoine returning to the town. There everyone seems to have forgotten; he is the only one who has not. The storm is the structural knot: a natural event covers a killing and nobody notices. The telling is calm and distanced, with the dramatic underlining deliberately low. Who it is for: viewers who like psychological crime drama and French provincial stories. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for justice; the film does not provide it.