Storm

"Storm" is a superb drama about the continuing search for justice for crimes committed more than a decade ago during the war in Bosnia.

The brilliant Kerry Fox stars as Hannah Maynard, a prosecutor working at the Haige, who is mounting a case against a Yugoslavian army commander, Goran Duric (Drazen Kuhn), who may have played a part in Serbian ethnic cleansing. The equally affecting Anamaria Marinca plays Mira, a young woman who was repeatedly raped under Duric's orders, but who has since moved to Germany to try and forget the past and to start a new life with her husband and young son. Yet, under Hannah's insistence, Mira is eventually convinced to do the right thing – i.e. to come forward as a witness against Duric - at great personal risk to herself and her family.

The screenplay by Bernd Lange and director Hans-Christian Schmid is multi-layered and complex, with each character emerging as a fully fleshed-out human being. Hannah is largely motivated by a righteous zeal and a desire to see true justice achieved through the court of law. Yet, there are moments when her motives are brought into question, when even the man she is dating accuses her of using the case more as a stepping-stone in her career than as a means of achieving a noble ideal. Similarly, Mira is torn between the desire to see that justice is finally done and the understandable need to secure a safe and peaceful life for her and her family. But there are more than issues of mere justice involved here, for by suppressing the horrors of what happened to her in the past, Mira has, in many ways, prevented herself from moving on with her life, a condition she may be able to rectify if she agrees to testify against Duric.

Beyond the character dilemmas, there is the broader issue of whether justice can ever be truly achieved in cases such as these, especially given the delicate political nature of such trials. Too often, for instance, the EU finds itself not wanting to "rock the boat" with present and future member nations and, thus, turns a blind eye to many of the obvious atrocities that have occurred in those places in the recent past.

Rife with human drama and enflamed by a righteous passion, "Storm" is an engrossing and vital recounting of recent tragic history.

Hannah Maynard (Kerry Fox) is a prosecutor at Hague's Tribunal for war crimes. She's given the trial against a Serbian commander 3 years after his arrest. The prosecution goes into a tail spin when the main witness's testimony is found to be factually wrong. She's under pressure and has to restart the investigation. She finds the witness's sister Mira Arendt (Anamaria Marinca) to be the real witness. Everybody is under threat. Mira had tried to start a new life in Germany. Entrenched powers, political expediency and brutal thuggery threatens to derail the truth.

Parts of this movie have great intensity but other parts get dragged down by the mechanics of the investigation and minutia of the trial. Kerry Fox is solidly in the lead while Anamaria Marinca provides the power. Other movies of its kind would provide constant flashbacks to inject the horror of war. This is a smaller undertaking but I think that the climax would be better served with a more powerful flashback reveal.

I saw this picture after a critics recommendation. As a retired Lawyer I was fascinated by the Hague and its world Court process in prosecuting the atrocities of the Muslums and others in Bosnia. It is a cerebral thriller. It is more interested in pursuing the criminals who were the Leaders of these horrible crimes. It is a great film about the legal system no matter what the court. It relies on drama, good acting rather than tales of horror. The trial scenes are simple yet riveting and suspenseful. It is also a great pleasure that my wife and I knew NONE of the cast, making the film that much better. It always amazes me how many good filmmakers there are in the world who out perform the crap that Hollywood makes. The over blown-in love with special effects is so juvenile it is revolting. Suffice to say Im not a kids anymore and is great to know there are people who recognize that there is an adult mature audience hungering for such films. It is also a thriller, so I guarantee you wont be bored. See it as soon as you can since it is very limited release!!

The inner workings of the European Union appear centre stage as Hans- Christian Schmid (director and co-writer) shines his critical spotlight upon an ostensibly expanding crevice of stark reality wedged between true justice and political expediency.

The dialogue is well structured, while the script, which is occasionally laboured, gains credence by dealing with topical issues with an obvious knowledgeable insight. Yet, ironically, this is also the movies Achilles heel. Events and procedures are so close to the inner workings of a legal system governed by technicalities that Schmid occasionally abandons entertainment for frustrating boring reality. Points against the European Union are often well made, but, at times, lack balance, and his criticism is unconstructive in nature, yet he does soften slightly as the film approaches the credits, and so, in so doing, leaves his audience with the slimmest slither of hope.

Storm is a dark, thought provoking drama that, having the courage of its convictions, aims high only to fall short at the final hurdle. MG

Storm (2009)

It is hard for people outside of the United Nations crimes courts to know quite how that world feels from the inside. I think it's too foreign, in every way, to know. And Hollywood tends to approach this kind of situation with heightened drama, exaggerated flair, darker darks and more romantic romances. I'm not a U.N. insider, but this isn't Hollywood and "Storm" feels as close to getting to the reality of that world as you can get in a fictional milieu. That's the brilliance of the filmmakers, withholding and avoiding undue drama but also making the characters complex and interesting.

Of course, restraint isn't always the way to engross your audience, and "Storm" tends to be interesting all along. It feels important and principled, a lot like its characters. This might help it last as a classic of some sort, gaining over time some of the shine it doesn't quite have now. But there is also the issue of why, exactly, the victims of war atrocities in the Bosnian conflict were forgotten by most of the world in the years after the war ended. From an American point of view, Yugoslavia had always seemed far away, not quite Europe, not quite Asia, becoming a mix of newly minted countries from the dissolution of a big one that had always remained isolated internationally. But the Europeans understand one of their own, and if this movie is right, it seems that Bosnia (and Serbia et al) were largely forgotten once the actual war was over. "Storm" is a particularly European approach to the issue, a Danish film overall, but a multi-culti multi-country production that fits its subject perfectly.

This movie is about a kind of dogged heroism that is part of the glory, really (no joke) of the United Nations. You come to appreciate the struggling, idealist foreign service and civil rights work that goes on at the lower levels of the U.N. completely out of sight, but critically important. Here the fight is led by a discouraged mid-career lawyer played by Kerry Fox with something approaching perfection. Her character is so everyday (for a high powered lawyer), you sometimes forget that the actress is pulling it off so well. The second lead comes in only halfway through, the equally brilliant Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca, who is a victim being coaxed into testifying, even though it is putting her life and her family in mortal danger.

Not many movies get made about this world in part because it's a little dry. There are no shootouts or bombs, just suspicious glares, sudden backroom decisions. But it's an important movie, at least it was for me, giving me just a small insight into that world, and into the social wreckage of the Bosnian war. If it had been given more drama, it would have acquired more hype, and director Hans-Christian Schmid deserves a bow for his steadfastness.

In researching a little, I found this review which I thought was really well written, you might also enjoy: http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2009/storm/

Or just see the darned movie.