 is a recent Law graduate who has been tasked){kind=link}
The presumption of innocence. That is the bedrock of many legal systems. Innocent until proven guilty. While the actual phrasing means that unless guilt is proven, you have to operate under the presumption of innocence, often read on its own, “innocent until proven guilty” is taken to mean that guilt is just the destination. This is one of the reasons why films set around a court case are ripe for stories, because court cases easily serve parallel journeys for the protagonists’ own journeys. In First Case from writer/director Victoria Musiedlak, Nora (played by Noée Abita) is a recent Law graduate who has been tasked with her first criminal case, a young man accused of murdering his neighbour.
Musiedlak leans into some tropes early to establish Nora’s innocence. The biggest trope is that Nora is a virgin. This one niggled me because I could tell it was being used to paint her as innocent in the scope of the film. Give me characters that want to have sex, characters that don’t, or characters that want to wait until marriage. It doesn’t matter to me as long as it feels like it comes from a place of character first. This however felt like it was plot-driven which is why it bothered me because, at the end of the day, I feel there were plenty of other ways to show that Nora was “innocent” other than playing the tired trope that virginity=innocence.
The murder case itself takes a backburner as the film focuses on how Nora goes about her life making decisions that serve her narrative of coming-of-age, her loss of innocence journey. The film relies heavily upon Noée Abita, who appears in almost every scene of the film. The film sticks closely to her POV. In fact, I can only recall one scene in the film that she doesn’t appear in, and that is when she has fallen into depression, AKA has to be roused back into her POV. Speaking of her depression, I think the film did a pretty good job of depicting it. While everyone goes through depression differently, I found the way it was depicted, especially with the handling of food consumption, the rawness of it, to be well done. It wasn’t overdone, but it wasn’t glamorized. It had an honesty to it that resonated with me.
Nora goes through the film struggling with the idea of what it means to be a “good” lawyer. That is her journey. And it is her first murder case, along with the personal drama, and the impact it has on her job, that helps her find the answer. It also sets her on her path. This means the coming-of-age was completed and a verdict was reached.
The film had a cool look and almost style similar to a Nordic crime series, which is interesting because the male lead who plays the detective is played by Anders Danielsen Lie a Norwegian actor. Was this a coincidence or intentional? Perhaps Musiedlak will reveal the answer in an interview, but until then I will speculate that it might not have been intentional but it was probably subconscious in the casting.
First Case had its World Premiere at Locarno 76 in their Piazza Grande section.
© 2020-2023. UniversalCinema Mag.