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Legal documentary An Army of Women doesn’t feature an army in terms of numbers, just a handful of plaintiffs in a lawsuit; but these few come to represent a multitude unspoken for. Norwegian director Julie Lunde Lillesæter follows a class-action suit originally brought in Austin, Texas in 2018 by a group of women protesting against their treatment as victims of rape and sexual assault. They accused the Austin Police Department and a local District Attorney’s office of habitual failure to adequately investigate and prosecute such cases.
What emerges is a pattern of negligence and misogynistic prejudice. The progress of the case comes in fits and starts; bitter disappointments followed by renewals of hope. Lillesæter, who also shot the film, confidently shapes all this into a coherent narrative, without ironing things out into the distortingly contrived “true crime” structure that afflicts so much current documentary. She focuses on a few of the plaintiffs, among them Marina Garrett, a young woman whose charismatic ebullience belies the degree to which her traumatic experience has affected her life. Another is an artist who prefers, throughout the proceedings, to use the pseudonym “Amy Smith”, and who channels her legal frustrations by slicing up court paperwork and collaging it into paintings. The hashtag #ForAmySmith becomes a rallying flag; when, at the end of the film, “Amy” finally emerges under her real name, it is a moment of cathartic significance.
Other moments bring narrative light and shade, notably the marriage of tenacious attorneys Jenny Ecklund and Elizabeth Myers, who fell in love while working on the case: sometimes, real life provides these gifts that you’d snort at in a Hollywood drama. The film is clear-sighted and involving, but at 84 minutes feels a little too condensed to get into its topic as deeply as it merits. Nevertheless, an eye-opener.
★★★☆☆
In UK cinemas from April 25
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