Disappearance at Clifton Hill (4 Stars)

This is the seventh film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

Abby grew up with her parents in the Rainbow Inn, a small hotel in the city of Niagara Falls, Canada. When she was seven she went on a fishing trip with her parents to the lake. She wandered off and saw a boy being bundled into a car and abducted. She ran and told her parents, but they didn't believe her, because she was always making up fantasy stories.

The years pass. Abby lives in various big cities in Canada and the USA. 25 years after the incident at the lake her mother dies, and she has to return to arrange the sale of the hotel. The kidnapping still haunts her, so she reports it to the police. They can't find any records of a missing boy at that time, but she refuses to let go. She investigates it herself and uncovers a conspiracy that has been kept secret for decades.

This is a thrilling film, very well made. My only criticism is that in the final scene something happens that puts the rest of the film into question. It seemed like a plot twist which would be unravelled in the last ten minutes, but the screen went black and the credits followed. Disappointing. I discussed this with other people attending the festival, and we were all puzzled.