Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a German writer, her French husband Samuel, and their eleven-year-old son Daniel live in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead below their chalet, the police question whether he committed suicide or was killed. Samuel’s death is treated as suspicious, presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect.

Justine Triet uses the conventions of the police procedural and the courtroom drama to frame her masterful interrogation of a complicated woman in Anatomy of a Fall, her third feature following In Bed with Victoria and Sibyl (both of which screened at IFI French Film Festival), and by some distance her most accomplished. By turns a gripping whodunnit and a probing character portrait, Anatomy of a Fall proves wholly engrossing, a deserving winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Notes by David O’Mahony