The Night of the 12th - 2022

Film. All4 (C4 catch-up)

The Night of the Twelfth

It is very difficult to reproduce the investigation of a serious crime accurately unless it is followed in real time by cameras, but once in a while, it becomes possible. In the case of this unnerving film dramatisation of a real murder, it was possible because the French writer Pauline Guena embedded herself for a year in the police force working on the horrific murder of a young woman, and hence gained an accurate enough picture to write a book about it, 18.3, Une Annee’ a la PJ. PJ stands for the French Police Judiciare, and 18.3 is that section of the French Penal Code that dictates their work.

Screenwriter Gilles Marchand adapted this book for the screen, and Dominik Moll directed. The resulting film won multiple awards. Its power lay in not only recounting a horrific crime and the efforts by the police to identify the culprit, but in revealing the vile misogyny present in certain quarters of the community - including some of the police force.

The victim was a young woman called Clara, played here by Lula Cotton-Frapier. One evening in 2016, after spending time with her best friend Stephanie (Pauline Seriys), she embarked on the short walk back to her parents’ house, where she lived. Somewhere on that brief journey, shortly after recording a video telling Stephanie how much she loved her, she was horrifically accosted and murdered. It was a particularly brutal killing - her attacker threw petrol on her then set her alight. The young woman did not have a chance.