"Stillwater" The story we need most right now, a prescription for this complex world

"Stillwater" synopsis

Bill, an American whose daughter is in prison for murder, believes in her innocence and pursues the truth behind the incident in Marseille, France.

Index

• ``Spotlight'' Director Tom McCarthy's new challenge
• To bridge the divide
• not giving answers to the world

``Spotlight'' Director Tom McCarthy's new challenge

The world is complex.

You and I, who make up that world, are equally complex.

``Stillwater,'' a collaboration between Tom McCarthy, director of ` `Spotlight '' (2016), and Matt Damon, is about an American father whose daughter is in prison for murder, believing in her innocence. This is a thriller movie that follows the truth behind an incident in Marseille, France. At the same time, it also serves as a prescription for modern society, where people are separated by deep gulfs.

"Stillwater" trailer

The main character, Bill, played by Damon, is a manual laborer living in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. He used to be an oil drilling worker, but he is currently unemployed, working on tasks such as removing rubble from tornado damage, and it is hard to say that he is living a financially prosperous life. His daughter Alison (Abigail Breslin), who has left her hometown, is gay and is serving a nine-year sentence in Marseille after being accused of murdering her lover. The case was sensationalized because of her sexuality, but Alison maintained her innocence from prison even after she was found guilty. Bill, who visits Marseille regularly, begs to meet with a lawyer.

However, a retrial for Allison was not realistic. Allison claims that the clues to the real culprit are weakly based, and Bill is in no financial position to hire a detective, even though he wants to find evidence of Akim, the man who seems to be the real culprit. Bill still wants his daughter to trust him, so he begins an investigation with the help of a single mother, Virginie (Camille Cottin), whom he meets by chance, but cultural and language differences stand in the way. Eventually, Bill gradually grows closer to Virginie and her daughter Maya (Lil Schabau), but...

“Stillwater” © 2021 Focus Features, LLC.

Director and screenwriter McCarthy began planning this film before ``Spotlight,'' and completed the project after 10 years of planning. One of the inspirations was the Amanda Knox incident in Italy in 2007. After Knox, an American student, was arrested for murdering her roommate, she consistently maintained her innocence and was acquitted in 2015 (as detailed in the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox ).

A student arrested in a foreign land and a murder case whose truth is unknown. McCarthy constructed a unique story for the film by drawing on two motifs from actual events. The screenplay was written by Thomas Bidegan and Noé Debray, who are known for their work with Jacques Audiard. This work, born from a completely new collaboration, is a story of "investigation", just like its predecessor "Spotlight". In order to find out the truth behind the incident, Bill wanders the streets of Marseille in search of Akim's whereabouts.

To bridge the divide