FILM OF THE WEEK ANATOMY OF A FALL

(UK 15/ROI 15, 151 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment (UK) Ltd, available now on Amazon/BT TV Store/iTunes/ Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other platforms, available from March 18 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99, Thriller/ Romance)

Starring: Sandra Huller, Samuel Theis, Milo Machado-Graner, Swann Arlaud.

In a remote area of the French Alps, German writer Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller) is in the trenches of a conflicted relationship with her French lecturer husband Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis).

The true extent of this unsettling psychological warfare is hidden from their 11-year-old son Daniel (Milo MachadoGraner), who has a guide dog called Snoop because of a visual impairment.

When Samuel is found dead in the snow beneath the attic window of the family’s chalet, police cannot immediately deduce whether the husband committed suicide, suffered an accidental fall or was pushed.

Sandra’s lawyer and trusted friend Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud) attempts to shield his client from intense scrutiny and scurrilous rumours.

An exhaustive investigation and subsequent trial identify the wife as prime suspect.

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, Anatomy Of A Fall is a riveting legal drama that puts us through the emotional wringer along with Sandra.

Huller is sensational as an embattled spouse, who may hold secrets that could shed light on Samuel’s suspicious death and potentially edge the verdict towards guilty.

Director Justine Triet’s script, co-written by Arthur Harari, maintains a hum of unbearable tension through deftly woven flashbacks and quietly devastating disclosures that blur a line where art bleeds into real life.

We all wear masks to conceal ugly frailties and Triet’s picture revels in the possibility that the woman we root for on the stand is a murderer.