Korean Premiere | 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival

Synopsis

 Based on a true story. Nurse Lucia has been present at one inexplicable death too many, and the hospital alerts the police. Assistant District Attorney Judith, driven by ambition and genuinely outraged, gets stuck in and Lucia is sentenced to life in prison. But something keeps troubling Judith, and she discovers inconsistencies in witness statements, and even the suppression of lab evidence. Ignored by her superiors, Judith teams up with Lucia’s lawyer. Things look bleak until they get the media involved and the biggest miscarriage of justice in Dutch history is finally reversed.

Program Note

 Accused is a thriller based on a true incident that
 occurred in the Netherlands in 2001. Focusing on two
 main characters, Lucia, a nurse, and Judith, a junior state
 prosecutor, the film begins with Lucia handcuffed in a
 police van, arrested as a serial killer. Then, as the film
 title appears on the screen, Judith enters the public
 prosecutor\'s office. The title shot juxtaposes Lucia, a
 suspect in a serial murder case, and Judith, an ambitious
 young woman with a promising future, and the two
 characters lead their lives in their separate circles.
 When infants Lucia tended to die under inexplicable
 circumstances, Judith and her boss visit the hospital
 where Lucia works, and their separate spaces collide.
 Through meticulously calculated editing, the film traverses
 between the two characters\' lives from the juxtaposition
 in the prologue to the connection in the beginning,
 interference in each other\'s lives in the middle, and
 reconciliation at the end. As Judith contributes to clearing
 Lucia\'s charges, the two women change from enemies
 to friends. One way to enjoy this film is by looking for
 dramatic devices in the thriller genre that the director uses
 to lead the audience to believe that Lucia is a serial killer.
 The latest feature film by Paula van der OEST, Accused
 was chosen as the official entry from the Netherlands to
 the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language film.
 [Sunah KIM]