Genealogies of a Crime

This labirynthine mystery begins with a Chinese ghost story in which a man obeys the predictions of fate and murders a girl. She in turn becomes a ghost who returns to avenge her death. Ironically, her killer falls in love with her. The story then jumps to more recent times. A psychiatrist (Catherine Deneuve) takes in her orphaned nephew Rene (Melvil Poupaud). Believing he possesses the personality of a killer, she begins to observe him carefully. A decade passes and the woman is killed. Rene is arrested for the crime. Meanwhile Dr. Georges Didier (Michel Piccoli) claims he saw the crime, which happened during a bizarre group-therapy session that he hosted. But lawyer Solange (Deneuve) isn't convinced of her client Rene's guilt and so begins an investigation of Didier's group. At the same time, she and Rene begin playing head games with each other.