POLISSE

France, 2011, 127 minutes, Colour.
Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Fois, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Maiwenn, Frederic Pierrot, Jeremie Elkaim, Riccardo Scamarcio, Sandrine Kiberlain.
Directed by Maiwenn.


The police, polisse, of the title of this very interesting French drama, are the Child Protection Unit of Paris. The film is definitely interesting but it is also definitely grim. And, not just with the crimes and cases that this squad has to deal with, but with the toll that this work takes on the individuals (and the group).

It has the air of authenticity about it, with the streets of Paris, the police precincts, homes, schools and malls, because director and co-writer, Maiwenn, spent a lot of time with the actual personnel for experience and research. Maiwenn herself plays a professional photographer who is hired to photograph the individuals at work but also aspects of the vcitms and the perpetrators, a reminded that she has done her preparation work and knows what she is presenting on screen.

While the film begins and ends in sounds of children’s joy, it shows us a range of cases, some glimpsed, some explored in more detail, where children are abused and hurt, often within a home context. To make this point, the opening story is disturbing as the interviewers try to coax a description out of a very little girl about her father’s inappropriate behaviour. It tests how we respond to such cases, how we feel for the little girl, wondering how such questions can be best put and answered.

The members of the squad have to do a great deal of interviewing, and in rooms that are not always conducive to privacy or to the comfort of the person being questioned. In the opening sequence, the little girl is being spoken to by one person while another sits, visibly, at a desk behind the first one, indicating directions for the interview. These sequences make us wonder what training the squad members have undergone, how personalized and how (as we see more of their own lives and struggles) this has an effect on their work.

There are runaways, infants, a girl who led another into a basement to be gang raped, a shy boy visctim to his sports coach, a well-to-do home where the mother (subsequently interviewed and embarrassed by particularly invasive – but perhaps necessary – questions about her intimate life with her husband and how that might throw light on what her husband has done to his daughter. (This man boasts of his friends in high places and of how he won’t go to jail.) And several other cases.
We also get to know several of the members of the unit very well as individuals, while others remain part of the group, identifiable by their faces, but not central as a some of the others. There are close friendships and confidants which emotions can turn into enmities. There is a man angry at home who takes it out on the accused but who begins an affair with the photographer. There is a sequence where the unit spends the night searching for a drug addicted mother who has abducted her child. Another of a stake-out in a mall – which goes wrong and leads to a hostage and gunfire situation.

It’s really a docudrama, plenty of the equivalent of documentary material on how the Unit operates, plenty of drama, especially of the lives of the unit members – including a dramatic and disturbing shock just before the end.

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, 2011.


1. The title, audience expectations, documentary style, dramatic style? The blend of documentary and drama?

2. The work of the writer-director, her performance, her research, her character? The photojournalist? Capturing the cases, the lives of the unit?

3. The Paris settings, the city, the various neighbourhoods, the wealthy, the poor, the details of the precinct? Action in the streets? Musical score?

4. The interweaving of the cases and the police work, the lives of the members of the unit, the editing and pace?

5. The child protection unit, within the police force of Paris, the background of drugs, vice? Authentic? Authority figures, the personnel, the variety of cases, police action and arrests? The interviews, counselling – and the styles of counselling, supervision? The tasks, the abilities of the staff, their limitations? The personal attitudes towards the victims, towards the perpetrators?

6. The background of ordinary lives, stress in work, hard decisions, action, friendships, clashes? The parties, the drinking, karaoke, mutual support? The final meeting – and the tragedy?

7. The range of cases, the brief indications, audience response to each, the children as victims? The playful introduction, the children’s songs? The children at the end?

8. The initial interrogation of the girl about her father, the confused child, her dreams, the nature of the interrogation, the leading questions, how intrusive, the role of the supervisor, present in the room? The visit of the girl and the leader of the gang, the taxi ride, the story of the gang rape? The pregnant girl, the stillbirth? Her grief? The wealthy girl and her parents? Runaways? The sports coach and paedophile? The cumulative impact on the audience of these cases?

9. The police in action, the woman abducting her baby, dropping it? The search for her, the questions, surveillance, the night, handling the situation after the all-night vigil?

10. Iris, serious, her difficulties with her husband, her preoccupation with her figure, wanting to be thin? Issue of pregnancy? Separation from her husband? With Nadine, Nadine listening to her, her being a sounding-board for Nadine and her emotions? Iris, intensity, breaking? Her being hurt by Nadine? The suddenness of her killing herself?

11. Nadine, her role in the interviews, her friendship with Iris, as a partner? Her husband, the separation, the mutual infidelities, her child? Agreeing to the divorce, the meeting with the lawyer, her weeping, emotional reaction? Kissing her husband? Going to the dance, socialising, telling off Iris at the end? The impact of Iris’s death?

12. Chrys, her husband, the police force, her pregnancy, her relationship with Mathieu, his being injured in the stakeout, going to the hospital?

13. Fred, his character, African background, his skill at interviews? The intensity of his own life, privacy?

14. Baloo, in charge, his personality, at home, his wife and her exasperation, leaving? Fred and putting him up at home?

15. Melissa, at home, her husband, the children? The photos? The meal, going to a separate apartment? Her job, the commission to be with the unit, her presence, Fred and his outburst against her, Fred and Melissa and their gradual bonding, the kiss, the affair? Melissa letting her hair down? Socialising? Her husband, leaving him, the children, his puzzlement?

16. Fred, his intensity, background, at work, friendship with Baloo, sharing the room with him, the wife the daughter, school? His wife upset? His anger with Melissa? The affair, the visit to her family, their friendship and support?

17. Mathieu, his work in the team, young, the interrogations, his participation in the stakeout, his being shot, Chrys coming to visit him?

18. The range of other men in the department, their influence, connections, their hard work? The other women in the team?

19. The stakeout in the mall, the briefing, the placements, the group, the boy noticing the setup, the hostage-taking, the shootings?

20. The wealthy mother, her child, the father and his molestations? His being charged? The interrogation, the embarrassment, his political connections, the detail? His threats? The wife, her interrogations, the intrusive questions about her sex life? The husband and his arrogance? The fate of the girl?

21. The build-up to the final conference, Iris and her death? Yet the work going on – and the music with the children at the end of the film?