Cinemania 2012: One Night

38 Témoins

2012/ Colour / 104 min / France-Belgium 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Lucas Belvaux
Scriptwriter : Lucas Belvaux 
Producers : Agat Films & Cie, France 3 Cinéma, Hérodiale, Artemis Productions, RTBF

Cast : Yvan Attal, Sophie Quinton, Nicole Garcia, Natacha Régnier, Françoia Feroleto
Sales : Films Distribution 

This film is adapted from the 2009 novel by Didier Decoin Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent? based on the brutal 1964  murder of Kitty Genovese. It is a deeply affecting drama by the Belgian director Lucas Belvaux. It forces a person to question himself as to what type of an action would he had taken in a similar situation.

A horrific crime happens in the middle of the night and no one claims to be a witness. But one man could no longer bear the sense of the guilt and comes forward, telling the police about what he had heard that night and what were his reactions. He is the only with a sense of responsibility for his lack of actions, the only person with consciousness. For that, his neighbours punish him with their hatred.

The film presents a situation where a person is deeply affected by the sense of his personal failings. It also states that there is no way out of the sense of deep guilt causes by the failed human responsibility. The main personage's consciousness turns him into a shadow of his former self. He claims that no one has a power to make him forgive himself, that no one could forgive him. Even the fact he is the only one with the sense of any responsibility and consciousness amongst 38 witnesses does not seem to redeem him in any way. The film ends on the note of deep disrepair. It shows the smashed reality of a broken life. But it forces one to ask if it is right to suppose that their is no possibility of redemption for this type of personal guilt and regret, no possibility of forgiveness of any kind?

Here is the film's trailer