Killing Anna
Sam Benstead / United Kingdom / 2026 / World Premiere / 76 min
A shocking video from Syria leads to an unusual detective story when a Syrian woman makes up a fake name to catch war criminals - on Facebook. A psychological thriller with a brave woman as a virtual Sherlock Holmes.
A Syrian academic in Amsterdam receives shocking footage of a massacre of civilians committed by an unknown officer during the war in Syria. The video haunts her. She sets out to track down the perpetrators, but by unconventional means. Under the alias Anna, she embarks on an extensive detective investigation. First to identify the war criminals – and then to befriend them on Facebook.
Killing Anna is a deeply captivating psychological thriller, where the psychological insights are both refined and, at times, surprisingly simple. Can you catch a murderer by probing the depths of his vanity and suppressed conscience? And can you get away with touching the fire yourself? The questions press in as the fictional ‘Anna’ hooks the man she believes appears in the horrific video, and thus sees the opportunity to confront one of the world’s most brutal regimes with its gruesome war crimes.
