Yara

Excellent production starts out snappy and well-constructed but loses focus towards the end. This may be a result of the nature of the true story taking several years to come to a conclusion. Not sure how the filmmakers could have solved this but a stronger soundtrack would have helped. This is not to say the music isn't good when it happens, it's very good, but the film needed more to fill in the gaps caused by the disjointed timeline of the case. Everyone on screen is very good.

As a crime fanatic this movie was good. We get to learn about this innocence 13 year old girl Yara who is into sports, and usually walks home after she is done at her local gym, not far from her home. But tragedy hits the town when she disappears and her body is found. Who would do such a cruel thing to a child?

The detective was the star of the show and without her resolve this case would have never been solved.

Isabella Ragonese shines in this investigation based on a real-live event: no cliché , no filler ,no hint at her private life, no unnecessary scene (the brief moment when she thinks she's lost her own daughter could not have been more human).

A determined woman , but not the usual smug cocky hero/heroine one meets in so many thrillers ,a human being with her doubts and her moments of discouragement ; putting her career on stake, even when everybody is against her .The parents,too,give a restrained performance,full of dignity , always trusting her and never overplaying,no facile tear-jerking scene. But the mother's look,at the end of the trial ,is revealing.

In spite of a horrible tragedy (the viewer knows from the start the fatal issue and the martyr the victim endured) , this is a gripping ,absorbing investigation ,involving the simplest methods (the diary of the teenager) and the more complex ones (DNA ); another strong point is that even in real life ,there are red herrings: a mistranslation can ruin an innocent's life.

For all intents and purposes, this is a cold case but prosecutor Letizia Ruggeri's decision to embark on reverse investigation focusing on DNA analysis backed up by a database of DNA samples was crucial to unmasking the killer. As the film shows, it's a slow, painstaking process but, in the end, it yielded a perfect match.

It's not all science; otherwise, it could be boring. There's genuine drama as well focusing on the family's deep grief and Ruggeri's steely determination to catch the criminal.

This film is more about Ruggeri as investigator than about the victim or her grieving family but it's compelling nonetheless. The director succeeds in re-constructing a true story that doesn't sound like a documentary. Isabella Ragonese effectively portrays her role as the crusading prosecutor. A fitting message from her is, a quitter never wins.

Watch this film. It's uplifting.

An above average movie with competent performances by everyone. However it would have been better if it was edited a bit more tightly thus reducing its length by 10-15 minutes. If you enjoy watching true stories involving the justice system,then you should not miss this film 6/10.