Based on the Kalinka Bamberski case, which made headlines in Europe for decades, this French-German drama focuses on the mysterious death of a teenage girl and the nearly 30-year quest of her biological father (Daniel Auteuil) to prove she was murdered by her stepfather. The film benefits from Auteuil’s moving lead performance, though the narrative is less exciting than it is resolute; because the murderer’s identity is obvious early on, the tension lies in the father’s accumulation of evidence to support his theory and in the roadblocks that impede the investigation. Writer-director Vincent Garenq, whose previous two films were also crime thrillers, demonstrates a knack for the genre. In French with subtitles.
In Her Name
1 hour 45 min • 2016
