“The Night of the 12th” is a thriller directed by Dominik Moll which won the César for Best Film in 2023. It is inspired by the unsolved murder of Maud Maréchal, which occurred in 2013.
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The Night of the 12th is a thriller by Dominik Moll released on July 13, 2022. Critically acclaimed, it also enjoyed a small success with the public for such a confidential film with 509,511 admissions. This feature film directed by Bastien Bouillon and Bouli Lanners looks back on the sordid and unsolved murder of a young woman, Clara, who was burned to death on her way home from a party, seen through the prism of the police investigation.
The Night of the 12th is unfortunately inspired by a sordid news item: that of the unsolved murder of Maud Maréchal, which occurred on the night of May 13 to 14, 2013 in Seine-et-Marne. The young woman, in the evening at her best friend’s house 600 meters from her home, decides to go home. She was found at 3:35 a.m., her body charred. This unsolved feminicide gave rise to a book, written by the journalist Pauline Guéna, entitled 18:3: A year at the PJ and published in 2021. The file was transferred in 2023 to the cold case center in Nanterre, RTL tells us.
Domink Moll’s film won 6 Césars in 2023, notably in the categories Best Film, Best Direction, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. When receiving his César, the director had “a thought for the real Clara, the real victim of the affair which gave rise to the film. Her name was Maud.” If he then regretted that his speech had brought this affair back to light, he said he had “thought of the parents” wondering if he “had added suffering to their suffering”. The latter nevertheless called him, as he explained to Le Parisien, assuring that they “thanked him for the film, for talking about their daughter to the Césars; .”
Synopsis – In Grenoble, Yohan, a judicial police officer, tries to collect clues that would allow him to move forward on a crime as heinous as it is complex. The charred corpse of a young woman recently discovered in a neighborhood of the city haunts his thoughts, and, despite intensive searches, Yohan is unable to move forward in his investigation. Over the course of the interrogations, the leads constantly multiply, and the young police officer gradually seems to lose his temper in the face of contradictory statements from the victim’s entourage. For the first time in his career, Yohan faces doubts that end up gnawing at him…