Fear of Water (2011, Canada)

Original title: La peur de l’eau

police investigation

Running time: 120 minutes

Language: French

Life on the Canadian Magdalen Islands is peaceful, local police doesn’t have much to do but the minor offences or DUI. But this day was different - Sergeant Andre Surprenant received message that murder victim was found on the beach and when he arrived and identified her as 18-year-old daughter of the mayor, he was sure that this day is gonna be different. It seems that the girl was raped and the killer left on her body a line of seashells. Since murder is something new to a local police seasoned detective Inspector Gingras is sent from Montreal to take over the case, but from the beginning Surprenant has the feeling Gingras doesn’t put his heart in the investigation, rather looks for shortcuts to quickly close the case. Surprenant knows the locals and begins checking what the girl was doing last night, what time did she left the bar and was is going on the island that he did not realize.

Fear of Water is one of the crime and mystery movies that shows the down-to-earth police investigation, not the Hollywood style car chases and spectacular scenes, but rather hard police work on gathering informations and tiny bits of evidence. Just like in French movie Crime Scenes or Korean Memories of Murder we have here the painfully realistic view on all the false paths the investigators can follow when they have very limited data. Fear of Water is not a masterpiece, the pace is a little bit slow, but it is realistic, well developed and well written mystery movie that follows a local policeman in his first (and probably last) murder investigaton and together with him we move in the darkness of mystery behind the crime.

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Creators of Fear of Water

	Gabriel Pelletier	director
	Gabriel Pelletier	screenplay
	Marcel Beaulieu	screenplay

Cast of Fear of Water

	Pierre-Francois Legendre	as Andre Surprenant
	Brigitte Pogonat	as Genevieve Savoie
	Normand D’Amour	as Denis Gingras
	Michel Laperriere	as Lieutenant Asselin
	Stephanie Lapointe	as Rosalie Richard
	Benoit Rousseau	as Platon
	Maxime Dumontier	as Julien Cormier
	Pascale Bussieres	as Elise