Cannes 2024: Ghost Trail is a tense and spectacular debut

★★★★★ | Jonathan Millet | Cannes 2024

Documentarian Jonathan Millet’s feature debut Ghost Trail is an ambitious beast.

While its cast is sparse, the film stretches across mainland Europe as it dives into heavy themes of exile, war crimes, and society’s failure to help those attempting to rebuild. In short, it’s the kind of material that could easily topple even an experienced director. Yet none of that is evident in Millet’s supremely confident first outing, which plays like a mixture between Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s a gripping and fully realized work of a mature talent that never lets its audience off easily.

Spectacularly, Ghost Trail is based on true events. Unlike other “inspired by” films, Millet keeps his lens fixed on the mundane. It eschews huge set pieces or action tropes. The biggest moment is a conversation between two strangers sharing a meal. Still, you could cut the tension with a knife. It leaves us wondering just how much the other person knows, or thinks they know. As with any classic spy thriller, the uncertainty and paranoia seep into the audience, making even the most innocuous exchange feel threatening.

Lead actor Adam Bessa is magnetic as the traumatized man hunting for justice. He barely speaks for long stretches at a time, yet Bessa’s physical performance keeps us attuned to his inner life. His pain is from something unspeakable, not just the loss of his wife and daughter. Yet much of it remains a mystery. To know more would be prying, and Millet smartly understands that many stories about refugees succumb to misery porn. In denying us the visuals, Ghost Trail forces us to engage with the horror on a deeper level.

Despite its globe-trotting exterior, Millet’s film never rushes or sensationalizes. It refuses to follow the established spy tropes, despite wading deep into the genre’s waters. In theory, we see everything we’d expect from a thriller like this. People listening to recorded conversations in dimly lit rooms. Long lenses probing through the crowd. The moment you realize everything is about to go wrong with only seconds remaining to prevent it.

This is a film that downplays its climaxes. They’re almost mundane. Nobody has fancy technology; everything is down to grit and ingenuity. In turn, they feel more true to life. It subverts the expectation of the traditional spy thriller by reminding us how much of our lives today are built on surveillance. The little things stand out, like how Bessa attempts to take a photo of a suspect in a crowded library. Or how the team of hunters meets online in a private lobby of an online shooter. That game, of course, it set in a ravaged middle-eastern city. The pain of others is entertainment for the masses.

Some might find the last half unrewarding because it offers very little in the way of traditional dénouement. I think it is brilliant and welcome exactly because of this. We don’t know how things will turn out, and there’s very little promise that justice is even a possibility. But we have to try, and we have to move on. Otherwise, evil will truly win. Ghost Trail presents us with a story that is as optimistic as any realist can be. We hope, and we might pray, but we can never take the future for granted.