Director François Ozon’s first venture into the world of black and white film, Frantz, is a slow-burning thriller that treats themes of national conflict, mystery and grief.

After the Great War of 1919, a young German woman named Anna mourns the death of her fiancé, Frantz Hoffmeister. When a stranger turns up to lay flowers at Frantz’s grave, Anna’s grief begins to mingle with intrigue.

Adrien Rivoire – a Frenchman who claims to have known Anna’s beloved – begins to recount anecdotes about Frantz, steadily winning Anna and the Hoffmeisters over.

When the complex love triangle escalates into a dense web of personal conflicts, Anna decides to follow Adrien to France to chase a dangerous truth.

Among the film’s influences, Ozon points to the films of Eric Rohmer – whose works play with lies and mystery � and Ernst Lubitsch’s 1931 drama Broken Lullaby, which was adapted from the post-war play L’homme que j’ai tué by Maurice Rostand.

Frantz is being screened today and on Friday at St James Cavalier at 8.30pm. For more information and tickets, visit www.kreattivita.org.