Dossier 137 review – tense gilets-jaunes thriller divides cop's loyalties over police brutality
Stéphanie, played by Léa Drucker, is a conscientious police officer in the IGPN, the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale, effectively the Internal Affairs bureau, investigating horrific head injuries suffered by a teen protester, which could only be caused by the cops' flash-ball weapons. She is divorced from a cop, Jérémy (Stanislas Merhar) who along with his new girlfriend – also in the police – is gloweringly resentful of what he sees as her bureau's disloyal undermining of the police, and the way she is questioning the corners they (supposedly) have to cut to keep France safe, especially after the Bataclan attacks.
Stéphanie's life becomes even more complicated when she realises that the injured boy is from her provincial homevtown, Saint-Dizier – exactly the kind of place where people feel left behind by the Macron elite – and when she goes back there to visit her mum, she is in danger of running into the boy's own stricken mother (Sandra Colombo). The secret connection energises Stéphanie, she gets tougher and more persistent in her quest to find the guilty cop and put him away – but the awful truth is that now she is cutting her own corners and might get investigated herself.
The film is on its most solid ground when it painstakingly – almost in the narrative equivalent of real time – takes us through the process of locating the cop culprits by finding CCTV footage from the site of the attack on the teenagers and then agonisingly slowly finding other videos from cameras nearby, tracking the culprits' route until the offending officers can be identified. This succession of coolly forensic images are juxtaposed with the kind of real smartphone demo footage that is now commonplace and which gets errant police officers prosecuted.
Stéphanie and her colleagues are convinced that cameras like this might be found in a luxury hotel whose rear entrance faces the crime scene – and this is to bring her into contact with a possible eyewitness: a hotel room cleaner, Alicia, played by Guslagie Malaga (best known for Alice Diop's courtroom drama Saint Omer). Moll gives Stéphanie a rather stagey and melodramatic one-on-one scene with Alicia as she begs her to help, but Alicia says that putting her head over the parapet to criticise the cops will only get her into trouble – and if the injured teen wasn't white, Stéphanie and her colleagues wouldn't care anyway. It's a bit overwrought and redundant, especially as Alicia's evidence is in fact a smartphone video that can be simply made available to the police without Alicia needing to go on the record at all.
In the end, the issue of Stéphanie's tribal conflicts of loyalty – between Paris and small town, between the cops and their liberal critics – doesn't lead anywhere very challenging, and this film is nowhere near as complex as, say, Moll's award-winning psychological drama Harry, He's Here to Help from 2000, a big Cannes success in its day, but it's high-minded, valuable work.
Dossier 137 screened at the Cannes film festival.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Telegraph
Macron makes a splash on holiday in south of France
Emmanuel Macron has been pictured making a splash during his surfing holiday in the south of France. The images, which have been shared widely by the media in France, mark a stark departure from the usual sobriety of the French president's usual crisp attire and serious demeanour. Instead of his signature dark blue suit, Mr Macron was captured in a wetsuit, riding a hydrofoil board and grinning widely during sunset. 'But what a handsome grandpa,' read the cover of Voici, a weekly celebrity and gossip magazine that posted the photos of Mr Macron on its cover on Thursday. Brigitte Macron, the French first lady, was also captured riding a jetski with one of her grandchildren while following her husband on the hydrofoil. The pictures were taken earlier this month at Fort de Bregancon, the French president's summer residence, a medieval fortress and the official retreat where French leaders have been holidaying since 1968. The fort is located about 100 feet above sea level on a rocky islet near the Mediterranean in the South of France in Bormes-les-Mimosas. TMZ, the celebrity tabloid news site, also commented on the president's athletic physique under the headline 'Flexing political muscles'. It said: 'French Prez Emmanuel Macron looks like he's been hitting the gym ... because he just showed us what he's been packing under his suits – and he's got a six-pack of abs.' It is not the first time Mr Macron has been praised for his athleticism. In 2024, official photos showed the French president with bulging biceps as he boxed a punching bag. Between hydrofoil sessions on the open water and excursions into town for a stage show with French comedian Dany Boon, Mr Macron has also been spending his summer holidays conducting state and international business. On Sunday, the president engaged in high-level talks with Sir Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, in a video conference to discuss the next stage of peace talks in Ukraine. The trio will be part of a delegation of European leaders who will join Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, in Washington on Monday to meet with Donald Trump. An unnamed source close to the president told Le Figaro: 'It's non-stop. He's making calls from Bregancon and spending his days exchanging messages with his counterparts.' Residents said the French president kept a lower profile than usual in the area. The owner of a bar-restaurant told Le Parisien: 'Sarkozy used to come and get his freshly squeezed orange juice, Chirac and Hollande used to come and see us, but we don't see Macron anymore. 'I think he is no longer very popular.'
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Binky Felstead displays her washboard abs in a skimpy bikini as she enjoys a lavish trip with partner Max Darnton
Binky Felstead flaunted her washboard abs in a bikini as she enjoyed a lavish trip to France with partner Max Darnton. The former Made in Chelsea star, 35, took to Instagram on Saturday to share a glimpse of her sizzling holiday style. She looked incredible in the blue two-piece as she danced under the sun while travelling around the the country in a yacht. Binky and Max, who have been married since 2021, looked happier than ever as they were joined by friends for their luxurious trip. In one snap, the former TV personality could be seen dancing in a little black dress while waving the England flag. Alongside her album of snaps, Binky penned: 'A day of salt water therapy & a lot of fun with a glorious crew' The trip comes after Binky opened up about a post-birth health issue which left her 'freaking out' and convinced she would lose her teeth. She was diagnosed with gum disease recently, which was beginning to destroy her bones and needed urgent attention. Binky is a proud mother-of-three and last gave birth in 2023 to a son named Wilder, who is now one. Following her diagnosis, Binky decided to share her story online with her Instagram followers, to spread awareness with other mums. Speaking to The Sun, she said: 'I was really worried about it and I actually only learnt through social media. By the way, hundreds of messages I got from other parents, other women, saying they've got the same. 'I think the old wives tale is that you lose a tooth per child. I don't know, I'm freaking out, I'm not going to have a tooth in ten years.' She added that there's 'lots of not so glamorous things' that happen after giving birth and having children. Binky said she has started having to do her greys, admitting that 'the good outweighs the bad'. She said it's 'important' to have these conversations on social media to normalise it, and that the fact it is common made her feel a lot better about it. Eight years after leaving MIC, Binky says she is 'kind of getting her MOJO back'. Binky is super relatable online with her fans, and always keeps it real. In recent weeks, she made a 'revolting' confession that she hasn't washed her make-up brush in 10 years during a mother-daughter makeover clip. India can be seen unleashing her creative spark as she layered on the bronzer and lined her mother's lips with a pencil. In the clip Binky confessed: 'Do you know your godfather, Ollie Locke? This was his makeup brush from about ten years ago and I have never washed it since. How revolting is that and I still use it?' India appeared unphased by the revelation and continued to layer on the bronzer until the TV personality persuaded her to stop. Motherhood is a vital part of Binky's life now and along with husband Max she appears to have the perfect fairytale family. She started dating her husband Max Fin January 2019 after they met at Soho Farmhouse and the couple later married in September 2021.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
With the Bayeux Tapestry that tells of their long rivalry, France and Britain are making nice
For centuries, the storytelling masterpiece has been a source of wonder and fascination. In vivid and gruesome detail, the 70-meter (230-foot) embroidered cloth recounts how a fierce duke from France conquered England in 1066, reshaping British and European history. The Bayeux Tapestry, with its scenes of sword-wielding knights in ferocious combat and King Harold of England's famous death, pierced by an arrow to an eye, has since the 11th century served as a sobering parable of military might, vengeance, betrayal and the complexity of Anglo-French relations, long seeped with blood and rivalry but also affection and cooperation. Now, the medieval forerunner of today's comic strips, commissioned as propaganda for the Normandy duke William known as 'the Conqueror' after he took the English throne from Harold, is being readied for a new narrative mission. A homecoming for the tapestry Next year, the fragile artistic and historic treasure will be gingerly transported from its museum in Bayeux, Normandy, to star in a blockbuster exhibition in London's British Museum, from September 2026 to July 2027. Its first U.K. outing in almost 1,000 years will testify to the warming latest chapter in ties across the English Channel that chilled with the U.K.'s acrimonous departure from the European Union in 2020. The loan was announced in July when French President Emmanuel Macron became the first EU head of state to pay a state visit to the U.K. since Brexit. Bayeux Museum curator Antoine Verney says the cross-Channel trip will be a home-coming of sorts for the tapestry, because historians widely believe that it was embroidered in England, using woolen threads on linen canvas, and because William's victory at the Battle of Hastings was such a major juncture in English history, seared into the U.K.'s collective consciousness. 'For the British, the date — the only date — that all of them know is 1066,' Verney said in an interview with The Associated Press. A trip not without risks Moving an artwork so unwieldy — made from nine pieces of linen fabric stitched together and showing 626 characters, 37 buildings, 41 ships and 202 horses and mules in a total of 58 scenes — is further complicated by its great age and the wear-and-tear of time. 'There is always a risk. The goal is for those risks to be as carefully calculated as possible,' said Verney, the curator. Believed to have been commissioned by Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror's half-brother, to decorate a new cathedral in Bayeux in 1077, the treasure is thought to have remained there, mostly stored in a wooden chest and almost unknown, for seven centuries, surviving the French Revolution, fires and other perils. Since then, only twice is the embroidery known to have been exhibited outside of the Normandy city: Napoleon Bonaparte had it shown off in Paris' Louvre Museum from late 1803 to early 1804. During World War II, it was displayed again in the Louvre in late 1944, after Allied forces that had landed in Normandy on D-Day, June 6th, of that year had fought onward to Paris and liberated it. The work, seen by more than 15 million visitors in its Bayeux museum since 1983, 'has the unique characteristic of being both monumental and very fragile,' Verney said. 'The textile fibers are 900 years old. So they have naturally degraded simply due to age. But at the same time, this is a work that has already traveled extensively and been handled a great deal.' A renovated museum During the treasure's stay in the U.K., its museum in Bayeux will be getting a major facelift costing tens of millions of euros (dollars). The doors will close to visitors from Sept. 1 this year, with reopening planned for October 2027, when the embroidery will be re-housed in a new building, encased on an inclined 70-meter long table that Verney said will totally transform the viewing experience. How, exactly, the treasure will be transported to the U.K. isn't yet clear. 'The studies required to allow its transfer to London and its exhibition at the British Museum are not finished, are under discussion, and are being carried out between the two governments,' Verney said. But he expressed confidence that it will be in safe hands. 'How can one imagine, in my view, that the British Museum would risk damaging, through the exhibition, this work that is a major element of a shared heritage?' he asked. 'I don't believe that the British could take risks that would endanger this major element of art history and of world heritage.' ___
