Movie · 2019 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 1h 44m · R · French
Curator score: 7.4/10 (118.7K ratings)
Overview
Stéphane has recently joined the Anti-Crime Squad in Montfermeil, in the suburbs of Paris, France, where Victor Hugo set his famed novel “Les Miserables”. Alongside his new colleagues Chris and Gwada – both experienced members of the team – he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs. When the trio finds themselves overrun during the course of an arrest, a drone captures the encounter, threatening to expose the reality of everyday life.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.4/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.82/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Ladj Ly
Production
Srab Films, Rectangle Productions, Lyly Films
Cast
Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djebril Zonga, Steve Tientcheu, Jeanne Balibar, Issa Perica, Al-Hassan Ly, Almamy Kanoute, Nizar Ben Fatma, Raymond Lopez, Luciano Lopez, Jaihson Lopez, Diego Lopez, Sana Joachaim, Lucas Omiri, Rocco Lopez, Omar Soumare, Ly Lan Chapiron, Abdelkader Hoggui, Djeneba Diallo
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A tense, socially charged police thriller that turns a suburban manhunt into a pressure-cooker study of class, race, and institutional failure. It’s strongest as a lived-in procedural with escalating dread, even if some viewers may find its moral framing blunt or its final stretch more forceful than subtle.
Best for
Viewers who like gritty urban crime dramas
Fans of tense ensemble procedurals
People interested in French social realism and anti-police corruption stories
Anyone drawn to films that build toward an explosive final act
Skip if
You want a cleanly resolved, morally simple story
You dislike handheld, urgent realism
You prefer character psychology over systemic conflict
You’re looking for a lighter or more entertaining crime film
Overview
Ladj Ly’s feature debut is a bruising, tightly wound snapshot of a Paris banlieue under constant strain. It plays like a procedural, but the real subject is the ecosystem around the cops: the kids, the dealers, the families, the officers, and the fragile codes that keep everything from tipping over. The film’s greatest strength is the sense that every interaction carries history and consequence.
Worth noting
The camera keeps the pressure high, and the movie is most effective when it feels observational rather than schematic. Some viewers may wish for more nuance in its moral balancing act, but the film’s anger is purposeful and often gripping. It understands how quickly routine policing can become a spark in a neighborhood already soaked in gasoline.
Bottom line
What lingers is not just the violence, but the unease before it. The final movement lands as a warning more than a catharsis, and that makes the film feel urgent even when it’s frustrating. It’s a sharp, contemporary companion to the great city-under-siege dramas, with a distinctly French political edge.
Top Letterboxd reviews
demi adejuyigbe (3★) · 768 likes
Honestly just left this movie feeling kind of frustrated, but not in the way Ladj Ly presumably wants me to be. Obviously it’s hard to discuss a film like this without letting your own politics seep into your interpretation, but the film seems to want us left imagining the gradient in both police morality and the morality of minority/poor populations. It tries to depict this scale with a “good cop” protagonist that I didn’t find as likable or right-headed to… more Honestly just left this movie feeling kind of frustrated, but not in the way Ladj Ly presumably wants me to be. Obviously it’s hard to discuss a film like this without letting your own politics seep into your interpretation, but the film seems to want us left imagining the gradient in both police morality and the morality of minority/poor populations. It tries to depict this scale with a “good cop” protagonist that I didn’t find as likable or right-headed to… more
Karsten (4★) · 454 likes
My first Cannes film!!! (grace if you’re reading this, sorry for dipping so fast, there was a lot going on)
This was fantastic. Such an angry film that really puts its morals in your hands which I appreciate. Some of my favorite films of all time are those that deal with this subject and do so very bluntly, but it’s nice to not be spoon fed how to feel for once. It’s lack of original style is the only thing… more
davidehrlich (3.5★) · 259 likes
Pointedly repurposing the title of Victor Hugo’s classic novel about the laws of nature and grace, Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” bears little outward resemblance to the epic story of Jean Valjean and his stolen loaf of bread. But Ly’s first narrative feature — a gripping and grounded procedural that probes the tensions between Paris’ anti-crime police and the poor Muslim population they torment and suppress — revisits the French suburb of Montfermeil in the present day, and finds that little… more Pointedly repurposing the title of Victor Hugo’s classic novel about the laws of nature and grace, Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” bears little outward resemblance to the epic story of Jean Valjean and his stolen loaf of bread. But Ly’s first narrative feature — a gripping and grounded procedural that probes the tensions between Paris’ anti-crime police and the poor Muslim population they torment and suppress — revisits the French suburb of Montfermeil in the present day, and finds that little… more
Sean Baker · 215 likes
5th film I saw at VIFF 2019. I found the film to a mash-up of Training Day, La Haine, The Raid and even The Hate You Give. Strong performances across the board with Alexis Manenti stealing the show.
The 2019 French submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Watched at Vancouver Playhouse.
allain♡ · 209 likes
Contrary to its title, this is not another film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, but it somewhat carries the same ideologies as the book and it also took place where Victor Hugo wrote the historical and recognizable novel. Les Misérables (2019) depicts an internal turmoil and violence in the suburbs of Paris, where the law is bent and police are like hard-hearted cowboys, willing to do anything to preserve the status quo. The movie was not shy in showing the… more Contrary to its title, this is not another film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, but it somewhat carries the same ideologies as the book and it also took place where Victor Hugo wrote the historical and recognizable novel. Les Misérables (2019) depicts an internal turmoil and violence in the suburbs of Paris, where the law is bent and police are like hard-hearted cowboys, willing to do anything to preserve the status quo. The movie was not shy in showing the… more
A hard-charging, morally thorny police film about corruption, force, and the machinery of urban control.
Topics
crime drama, social realism, police procedural, political thriller, urban tension, handheld camerawork, ensemble cast, class struggle, French cinema, high-stakes