La Civil review – compelling cartel kidnap drama with a vérité edge

Teodora Miha imbues this harrowing tale of a mother's search for justice with a documentarian's gaze, in a solidly made descent into every parent's worst nightmare

This film began life as a documentary about kidnaps for ransom, fuelled by narco violence in northern Mexico. But when cartels started following Belgian-Romanian director Teodora Mihai around she changed tack, turning her material into drama - working with Mexican scriptwriter Habacuc Antonio de Rosario. Still, the film's nonfictional beginnings perhaps explain why Mihai tells her story not so much as a thriller but as a naturalistic-looking drama, intelligent and mostly absorbing. It's inspired by true events, fictionalising the story of Miriam Rodriguez Martinez, a mother who hunted down the people responsible for the kidnap and murder of her 14-year-old daughter.

Arcelia Ramirez is outstanding as Cielo, a middle-aged woman whose daughter Laura goes missing. The next day a smirking, menacing young man called El Puma (Daniel Garcia), demands 150,000 pesos if you want to see your daughter again." With her ex-husband Gustavo (Alvaro Guerrero), she cobbles the money together, hands over a brown envelope and a brand new truck. But instead of returning Laura, El Puma delivers another ultimatum. Cielo's ex-husband gives a fatalistic shrug and withdraws into grief. The cops can't help her, or won't. At a morgue Cielo views the bodies of two decapitated young women - thrown out of a truck on to the street among morning commuters. Neither is her daughter.