Palme D'Or winner and probable Foreign Language Film of the Year 2023/24, catch this while you can. At first, a slow-paced but engrossing dissection of a troubled marriage, then a death in unexplained circumstances, all leading to a riveting courtroom drama. The French legal system - inquisitorial - laid bare like never before! Did you know that in France, if a defendant is not French then real time translation is available to ensure everyone from defendant through to judge, jury and counsel can hear proceedings in their language of choice via a headset? Positively innovative & refreshing.

Anyway, Sandra (Sandra Hullier) is a German national and her French husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) are writers, both intellectual, living with their young visually impaired son Daniel in a chalet high up in the picturesque French Alps near Grenoble. Samuel, poor chap, flits into and out of bouts of depression accentuated by remorse over missed opportunities earlier in life and now by writers' block, Sandra is taking lovers (of both sexes).

One day, Samuel is found dead at the bottom of the chalet with a nasty head wound. Did he fall from an upstairs window, hitting his head on a bunker at the bottom of the chalet or was this something more sinister? Police are dissatisfied with Sandra's explanations and she ends up in the dock. She has an unfortunate tendency not to tell the whole truth which, of course, compromises her. The court must decide was this some form of culpable homicide (even murder), was it suicide or just plain accident?

For the final third of the film we're in court. Terrific courtroom scenes with twists and turns keeping you guessing to the end. Vincent (Swann Arlaud) leads Sandra's defence (he may even be a former lover) and, simply towering above proceedings, L'Avocat General Antoine Reinartz prosecutes with a condescending sneer "they pay me because I'm so good at uncovering the truth".

Director Justine Triet runs a tight ship throughout, her sumptuous outdoors cinematography - with the French Alps in all their splendour - reminds of Anthony Mann in the 1950s

Probably Nuri Bilge Ceylan's movie with the most dialog. If you don't mind spending three and a half hours sitting, you will watch it with interest. The acting is incredibly successful. Deniz Cellioglu's acting as Samet is incredible. Merve Dizdar had already proven her success by winning the best actress award at the Cannes film festival for her acting in this movie. Centering on a handful of teachers in a snow-covered village in Anatolia, we watch an extraordinary story with a great script. Although the prolonged dialogues sometimes slow down the pace, I think you will enjoy the film in general. Especially the naturalness of the small actors in the student roles is magnificent. During Nuray and Samet's long conversation at the dinner table, there are inconsistencies in terms of continuity in the positions of the actors at different camera angles. Ceylan is already a master photographer. He reflected this mastery in his movie. I found his use of the camera very successful, especially in tight spaces. Some of the sentences interspersed between the dialogues still impress me. It will be very surprising if this movie is not among the best foreign film nominees for the Oscars. It was one of the two movies I saw this year that I can say I liked very much. I hope the majority feel the same way.