By Vanessa Huang
★★★★
Did he jump? Did he fall? Or was he pushed? These are the questions swirling around the death of Sandra’s (Sandra Hüller) husband Samuel (Samuel Theis), in a case that moves to trial with Sandra as the prime suspect. Writer and director Justine Triet tiptoes around the rules of the procedural – only to upend them, marrying convention with her more arthouse sensibilities in a work that balances ambiguity with precision. A corrective to the often lurid spectacle of true crime, Anatomy of a Fall lays bare the harsh glare of the courtroom – and how it can be so cruel and unforgiving. Perhaps as our secrets unravel, so do we.
Illustration by Christina Jiang
