A chilling thriller very well documented
Nominated 10 times for the Césars in 2023, notably for Best Film and Best Director, Dominik Moll’s latest film is one of the big favorites of this 48th ceremony, alongside The Innocent of Louis Garrel and his 11 nominations. To write this film, the director of only beasts And Harry, a friend who wishes you well was fully inspired by a novel by Pauline Guéna, entitled 18.3 – a year at the PJ. In this novel, the writer tells the story of a feminicide, which strongly shocked the whole of France in 2013. To do this, she spent a year immersed in the investigations of the judicial police of Versailles, in charge of investigation.
What we know from the investigation
Maud Maréchal was a 21-year-old young woman, without history and without an enemy. She still lived with her parents, in Lagny-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), in a peaceful suburban area. On the night of May 14, 2013, Maud goes to a party organized by friends, accompanied by her brother. Around 2:30 a.m., she decides to return alone to her home located not far from the party, just 600 meters away. Since then, no news.
Around 3:30 a.m., his body was found on a sidewalk by a police patrol. The officers discover in the middle of the street his charred and still burning body, lying in a puddle of blood mixed with gasoline.
The investigation then begins for the inspectors of the judicial brigade of Versailles. In an interview given Criminal Investigations, the lawyer for the victim’s family stipulates that “On the crime scene we find, scattered over about forty meters, her handbag which is charred, a cigarette butt and a piece of shoelace. His clothes are completely burnt. Would she have tried to flee the flames by leaving her handbag on the road? No one knows.
The police then questioned the neighbours, who declared that they had neither seen nor heard anything. Only one resident said she “heard cries”, like those of a child in distress. The autopsy, for its part, reveals that “death is the consequence of combustion”. Maud therefore died of suffocation and burned alive.
But who could be the culprit? An ex-companion? A jealous friend? Some time after this macabre discovery, the investigators discover that the day before her assassination, Maud had received a huge number of messages from a man. A track that the investigators ousted very quickly, to focus on a second track: a year before the facts, Maud had filed a complaint against X by reporting a series of malicious calls. This young man allegedly harassed Maud and threatened to “burn (his) house and all (his) family with it”. But this track is also abandoned, for lack of evidence.
10 years later, this case remains unsolved, like 20% of the 800 homicides recorded each year in France. In the media, however, the investigation continues. In September 2021, a call for witnesses was broadcast on M6. On this occasion, Maud’s mother “hopes that it will succeed” and that “those people who know things […] have the courage to let go and testify”. But again, the searches turned up nothing concrete.
Why this incident in particular?
Why did Dominik Moll choose to deal with this feminicide in his film? According to the director, he totally embodies the toxic masculinity of certain men. Effectively, in the Sunday newspaper, the director explains this choice: “I wonder about masculinity and the violence that results from it. Not all men are rapists, but all rapists are men. »
Even more, this news item is a cold box, an unsolved court case. Dominik Moll wanted to immerse us in the daily life of the police and their stubborn men to find the truth.
Because yes, this type of investigation necessarily has a strong impact on the private life of the police, plagued by doubts, uncertainties, frustrations and disillusions. This is particularly the case of Yohan Vivès, the head of the PJ (played by Bastien Bouillon), haunted by this irresolute feminicide and who is starting to lose his footing.
By Dominik Moll. With Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners, Theo Cholbi
Duration: 1h54
On Canal + until 04/17/2023
18.3. A year at the PJ, Pauline Guéna, Gallimard, €9.20
The 48th Cesar ceremony, from 9 p.m. in clear, live and exclusively on Canal +
LR