So Help Me God

The everyday work of Brussels judge Anne Gruwez ranges from questioning suspects to visiting crime scenes and directing DNA tests in consultation with detectives. So Help Me God observes the events unfolding in the judge’s chambers and beyond, without interviews, commentary or music. Given the nature of the content, it's remarkable that the filmmakers were allowed to film it all. The personality of the outspoken central character is strikingly offbeat, and she sometimes takes a decidedly politically incorrect tone in her relations with colleagues and suspects. The conversations themselves are also extraordinary: sometimes comical, as the judge asks a sex worker about her clients’ bizarre requests, and sometimes disconcerting, when she listens impassively to the story of a woman who murdered her eight-year-old son. Truth sometimes proves to be far more shocking than fiction.