Lake Lehman and the surrounding mountains are an extremely suitable landscape for the genre of psychological thrillers. The calm and glacial beauty of the places always seems to hide a threatening subtext, just as the impeccable politeness of the locals is too perfect not to suspect smoldering and strong dramas, or conflicts well-buried under the Swiss cleanliness, punctuality and civility. To the well-stocked list of thriller films that successfully use this background I can now add 'Moka', a film released in 2016, which can be described as a psychological drama with nuances of thriller and detective story, based on a novel written by the successful writer Tatiana De Rosnay and directed by Frédéric Mermoud.
The story of the film takes place on the shores of Lake Lehman. Diane (Emmanuelle Devos) lives in Lausanne, on the Swiss shore of the lake. She lost her teenage son a few months ago in an accident involving a vintage car with a French plate and an unusual mocha color. A private detective provides her with information that four cars corresponding to the description exist in Evian, on the opposite French shore. Diane will cross the lake in search of those responsible for the accident. The search leads after a while to a couple that corresponds to all suspicions, in whose life our hesitant heroine will infiltrate. The reasons for her actions are unclear, at least at first. Distrust of the police? The need of revenge? The desire to get closer, over death, to the son whose life she begins to learn more about only after he has disappeared? The motto of the film is 'what would you have done in her place?' The answer is not simple.
'Moka' offers quite a lot of reasons of satisfaction, first of all through the excellent acting of Emmanuelle Devos, an actress that I like enormously, who lives here intensely the role of the grieving and confused mother, who can not find here peace until the truth about the death of her son comes to light. The secondary romantic threads (the relationship with the husband from whom she is separated, the fling with the younger man met on the boat crossing the lake) find their rightful place in the action and add a new dimension to the woman's portrait. Nathalie Baye takes the role of the woman suspected of being involved in the fatal accident. She's OK, not more. The drama of the confrontation between the two women becomes more important than whosdunit intrigue. Questions about finding the mental balance after such immense trauma, the need for punishment and justification of revenge take precedence. If I had anything to reproach to director Frédéric Mermoud that would be the too clean, too ... Swiss approach of his directing of the whole story. Relying on excellent acting and on the cold beauty of the landscapes, it seems to me that he misses the opportunity to add a personal touch. Anyway, we are left with a good film, a psychological thriller and a very well told and excellently played post-traumatic drama, which is worth its watching time.
