Storm

Big things were expected of German director Hans-Christian Schmid after he wowed critics in 2006 with astonishing demonic possession drama ‘Requiem’. Sadly, he’s chosen to abandon much of what was great about that movie – the bracing, close-quarters photography, a virtuoso central performance – for this robust if inessential follow-up, a Euro-hopping legal thriller far more concerned with the ‘legal’ than the ‘thriller’. Kerry Fox slinks into the role of a hard-nosed senior prosecutor out to bring a criminal Serbian general to justice. After a key witness commits suicide, his sister (played by Anamaria Marinca’s from ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days’) agrees to share her experience of the atrocities to a tribunal at the Hague. ‘Storm’ is best when examining the emotional toil of the legal process, with Schmid and writing partner Bernd Lange offering a satisfyingly humane spin to the old story of moral obligation versus personal safety. The functional direction complements the austere material, but you can’t help feeling the story needed something a little extra.