“A thrilling sensory film in which French-Tunisian actor Adam Bessa’s subtlety leaves us breathless.”

Ava Cahen - Critcs' Week's Artistic Director

“A tense, stirring and expertly judged thriller about syrian exiles in France powered by a pair of blazing performances. Jonathan Millet’s feature-length debut is a work of visceral intensity and formidable control, pulling you into a tight grip and holding you there. Best of all are the two fascinatingly matched feats of acting at the movie’s center: the stealthy emotional wallop delivered by lead Adam Bessa (Extraction) and a spine-chilling supporting turn from Tawfeek Barhom (Cairo Conspiracy). Bessa has a soulful movie-star magnetism that he modulates flawlessly here. Millet knows how to crank up the tension, assisted by Yuksek’s churning electro-infused score and the deft layering of ambient campus noise — whispers in the hallway, chairs creaking, the shuffling of papers — with Hamid’s own throbbing heartbeat. A gripping manhunt movie that packs a stealthy wallop.”

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Closer in spirit to Spielberg’s Munich. Ghost Trail is exactly what it says it is; a search for something intangible, something undoubtedly there but at the same time … not. It’s a common dilemma in a revenge movie — to get satisfaction or meekly walk away — but, with the icily intelligent Ghost Trail, Millet amplifies the agony, applying it to a whole generation of Syrians left picking up the pieces of their once-normal lives, facing an aching void where their futures used to be.”

DEADLINE

“A thrilling debut for the opening Critics Week with this tense manhunt from writer/director Jonathan Millet, which balances cloak and dagger intrigue with an acute psychological exploration of grief, loss and exile. The sense of lone wolf obsession that threatens to overwhelm Hamid has echoes of Coppola’s The Conversation (1974). Adam Bessa charismatic central performance lends gravitas to an assured, involving tale inspired by true events. Millet and cinematographer Olivier Boonjing encourage a sense of intimacy through the use of close-ups. The score by electronic musician Yuksek adds a throb of intrigue and menace.”

SCREEN

“Jonathan Millet's directorial debut is an espionage saga that honors our natural thirst for revenge. Ghost Trail refuses to let anyone treat the plight of Syrians like a thing of the past. Filled with beautiful shots that demonstrate how you don’t need a single word to illustrate the pain in a human soul, the film marries some of the best aspects of spy thrillers and slow cinema in a portrait of the ways that wars haunt us long after we escape them.”

INDIEWIRE

“A spellbinding first feature about revenge, trauma and exile. Welcome to a world of paranoia, lies, pretense, nightmarish memories, shadowing and secret exchanges in Jonathan Millet's highly accomplished first feature. From this fascinating topic, woven into a genre-film framework, Jonathan Millet extracts a highly original film in its existentialist dimension, about the extreme difficulty of chasing away the ghosts of a crushing past, against a backdrop of ethical questions about how to exact revenge and the general anguish of living in exile. A spellbinding result that holds great promise for the rest of the filmmaker's career.”

CINEUROPA