Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Sadly Over-hyped

One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Hannah Maynard (Kerry Fox) is a prosecutor at Hague's Tribunal for war crimes. She's given the trial against a Serbian commander 3 years after his arrest. The prosecution goes into a tail spin when the main witness's testimony is found to be factually wrong. She's under pressure and has to restart the investigation. She finds the witness's sister Mira Arendt (Anamaria Marinca) to be the real witness. Everybody is under threat. Mira had tried to start a new life in Germany. Entrenched powers, political expediency and brutal thuggery threatens to derail the truth.Parts of this movie have great intensity but other parts get dragged down by the mechanics of the investigation and minutia of the trial. Kerry Fox is solidly in the lead while Anamaria Marinca provides the power. Other movies of its kind would provide constant flashbacks to inject the horror of war. This is a smaller undertaking but I think that the climax would be better served with a more powerful flashback reveal.

The movie has won two awards at the Berlin International Festival, one at the Munich and the London Film Festivals and one at the Chicago International Film Festival; Amnesty International award at the Berlin International Festival was another it won at that festival, for its probing subject depiction. A glance at the brief storyline gives you an idea of the context of the story. The cast were complete unknowns to me but clearly that is because I have a poor knowledge of rising European actors (a work in progress); the actors delivered most convincing performances.This movie brings you inside the International Criminal Tribunal where you will discover the enormous challenges this organization has to overcome to fulfill its mandate, the utter frustrating obstacles the prosecutors, administrator, researchers, minders and others have to contend with on a regular basis and realize that the more passionate and dedicated prosecutors are, the more likely they are to find justice is an elusive ideal and a practically unrealistic hope they are best not to invest to much in. You will feel the same sad resignation to reality as that which the movie "The Whistleblower" mad me feel (see my review of same).The main character in this movie, Hannah Maynard, played by Kerry Fox, is undermined at each of her attempts to make progress in the case of genocidal murderer, rapist and most despicable military commander she has been assigned to prosecute. A desperate victim of that commander's atrocities resorts to false testimony in a futile attempt to help the case before the tribunal and as a result, makes it all but impossible for Maynard to proceed when the defense attorney debunks the perjurer. Riddled with shame and despair the false witness kills himself. Maynard strong-minded sense of purpose manages to find a related real but reluctant witness (a rape victim herself); engaging that new witness to help, but too late to satisfy the court's protocols has now to deal with a new situation. She has placed that new witness and her family in harm's way and that family is 'revictimized '.In the end Maynard is betrayed by her husband, by the system she tried to serve and risks her career and future prospects by breaking the courts ordonnances just to allow the victim a chance to voice what the tribunal's process had denied her: telling the whole truth. The criminal walks away, the victim/witness' spirit is broken and so is Maynard.I enjoyed the experience but the spoiler I just blurted above will not likely make you want to see the movie; sorry. If you still plan on watching it, you are a true movie enthusiast and just a bit of a masochist I think.

The inner workings of the European Union appear centre stage as Hans- Christian Schmid (director and co-writer) shines his critical spotlight upon an ostensibly expanding crevice of stark reality wedged between true justice and political expediency.The dialogue is well structured, while the script, which is occasionally laboured, gains credence by dealing with topical issues with an obvious knowledgeable insight. Yet, ironically, this is also the movies Achilles heel. Events and procedures are so close to the inner workings of a legal system governed by technicalities that Schmid occasionally abandons entertainment for frustrating boring reality. Points against the European Union are often well made, but, at times, lack balance, and his criticism is unconstructive in nature, yet he does soften slightly as the film approaches the credits, and so, in so doing, leaves his audience with the slimmest slither of hope.Storm is a dark, thought provoking drama that, having the courage of its convictions, aims high only to fall short at the final hurdle. MG

This film was supposed to be done in 2007 and to talk about a Croatian war crime criminal Ante Gotovina that was arrested in Spain and the infamous 'Storm' (military offensive in Croatia in 1995), but somehow the title stayed, but the story changed (probably doing the long research) and it's about a trial against a Serbian commander from the same war (who gets caught in Spain at the beginning of the film though) and the main roles (the convict and his lawyer) were played by Croatians which was funny. The commander's name and the place where he allegedly committed crimes are fiction, except the hotel's name that was modified, but who can speak the language will get it.Anyway, doesn't matter which side is being the bad one, a war criminal is a war criminal but also a national hero for some. What I like about this film is that it's remarkably restrained for a political film, there are no flashbacks to the wars in the Balkans because in the first place it covers the dynamics of the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) in pretty much critical way, how it works (shown from personal and public perspective), how time pressure on witnesses, judges, prosecutors.. should be reduced because the UN plans closing the Tribunal by the end of 2010 and many things have been left untold, unsolved, criminals unpunished.. It yearns for public awareness hoping something will change. It portrays how difficult it is to run a lawsuit when you can't make witnesses testify because they are afraid for their lives and families, when even after so many years some people are not ready to speak, the others are not capable of accepting the terrible crimes violating human rights as crimes that should be punished. It shows women's zeal for justice and punishment more than men's, people trying to maintain their balance when everything's unjust, betrayals, political countermeasures.. In this film a hero may not get the villain, the victim may not get to testify like she wants and the justice may not be satisfied because even at high court as this one justice is just a part of political games, a lot of compromises are being made because a lot of things are at stake (for example the witness' testimony may jeopardize the political need to bring various states from ex-Yugoslavia into the EU, it should be done as smoothly as possible and everything else is less important, even justice).The heart of the film lies in the scene when a witness finds out that she won't be allowed to testify about her ordeal she asks a question about the ICTY in the fury - What kind of court is this? What the hell is it actually for?! The frustrating answer which is hard to accept is - Partial justice is better than none. And I should add superb acting by leading female roles Kerry Fox and Anamaria Marinca, the Notwist's music in the background giving the special cold feeling to the whole murky atmosphere and making the film good as it is, but still it has more sense to people from the region or those involved with the Tribunal.