German-Canadian director Wiebke von Carolsfeld said her survival thriller “Someone’s Daughter” asks difficult questions about sexual misconduct allegations and the justice system.
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German-Canadian director Wiebke von Carolsfeld said she believes filmmakers should ask questions rather than provide answers, and her new survival thriller “Someone’s Daughter” is built around that approach.
Von Carolsfeld said the film centres on allegations of sexual misconduct and the role of the justice system, describing it as “a very difficult conversation” that not everyone wants to have.
She said she began with a question about why female lawyers agree to defend powerful men accused of sexual misconduct, adding that many defence arguments emphasize the right to representation and that judging is not part of a lawyer’s role.
The director said the film then considers what happens when legal representation is no longer only “your job,” describing the issue as potentially affecting someone’s life when it may involve whether a defendant is a rapist.
“Someone’s Daughter” is now playing in select theatres across Canada and follows two characters over much of the story: Paul, played by Francois Arnaud, and Sam, played by Pascale Bussières.
Paul is a man whose life was upended years earlier when, as a university student, he was charged with sexual assault, while Sam is a high-powered lawyer in her 50s who successfully defended him in court.
The film forces the two together when the father of Paul’s alleged victim kidnaps them and leaves them on a remote Canadian island to fend for themselves.
Arnaud said he saw his character Paul as being in “arrested development,” likening him to “still a teenage boy” in spite of being in his thirties, and he said he was drawn to the character in part because the story does not focus on whether Paul was guilty for most of the film.
Arnaud said he also reflected on broader themes while filming, including whether it is possible to know what happened between two people when nobody else was there, and what he described as the justice system’s imperfections.
He said his family background includes lawyers who work for the Canadian and Quebec governments and are involved in the justice system, and he added that the system is “very deeply imperfect,” in remarks shared during a video call.
Von Carolsfeld said her view is that the system is failing victims, and she pointed to arguments that court processes can be retraumatizing for complainants when they must repeat allegations during trials.
She said the Crown attorney is not actually their lawyer but instead represents the government, and she argued there is no easy answer while emphasizing the importance of raising the questions and continuing to discuss how to find better ways for victims to receive fair justice without being “re-victimized in the process.”
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