Dominik Moll’s “The Night of the 12th”

The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12) (2022)

Grounded police procedural subverts the genre brilliantly in this unnerving fictionalisation of a true crime which touches on misogyny, racism and unanswerable questions

Based on the non-fiction account of a horrific murder in rural France, Moll has cowritten(with Gilles Marchand) an intense and sometimes bleak police procedural which moves at a quietly relentless pace. Having recently been promoted after the retirment of his predecessor, chief Yohan (Bastien Bouillon) and his team are assigned the brutal murder of a woman in a provincial town. He is focussed, professional and serious about his work to which he rises to meet while fellow officer Marceau (Bouli Lanners) is world weary and distracted by his crumbling personal life.

What’s interesting is that the case itself is core to the film but holds equal weight against the development of Yohan as he navigates a perplexing and prejudiced world which makes for a more universal story of living rather than the typical thriller-puzzle we’re more accustomed to in this genre.