A Life Interrupted (2007, Canada)

Running time: 90 minutes

Language: English

In 1989, Debbie Smith, a typical housewife from suburban Williamsburg, Virginia, was attacked near her house. A masked man dragged her into the nearby forest and raped her. Debbie managed to return home and call the police and then she was taken to the hospital, where samples of semen and blood were taken from her body and clothing. Her husband, a local policeman, is shocked that something like that could have happened in their neighbourhood. Even though he is an experienced officer, he feels helpless when his wife was the victim of the crime. He tries to find the attacker, but there are no leads in the case and soon it gets cold. That incident changes the life of the whole family - Debbie constantly feels frightened, hardly ever leaves the house, the family seems to be falling apart since she can’t find the way to let go and her husband can’t find the way to help her. But the trauma did not change one thing - Debbie is determined to find the man, who did this to her and years later a new technology makes it possible to find the culprit.

The film is based on a real event that was a breakthrough in American Law. It started the law known as Debbie Smith Act, which was pressing the police and other authorities to make larger use of the DNA testing when investigating rape cases. The Debbie Smith case was one of the first in which DNA testing method helped to find the rapist, but it took years since the crime until the culprit ended up in jail. A strong true crime movie with good performance from Lea Thompson playing the main character.

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