By Dennis Hartley

What is the most thankless job you can think of? “Police internal affairs investigator” has to be in the top five. Consider Stephanie (Lea Drucker), a no-nonsense officer in the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale. When not getting side-eyed at work by regular beat cops who view Stephanie and her fellow inspectors as little more than glorified snitches, she’s fielding questions at home from her 12 year-old son like “Why does everyone hate the police?”

Stephanie and her colleagues are embroiled in a case where a 20 year-old participating in a Paris street protest has sustained permanently debilitating injuries after getting shot in the head with a riot gun by masked plainclothes officers. Witnesses claim the victim did nothing to provoke the attack (whether it’s Paris or Minneapolis…the song remains the same). Between the uncooperative police interviewees, her nit-picky superiors, and a mistrustful witness who may possess critical evidence, Stephanie has her hands full.

Director Dominik Moll (who also co-scripted, with Gilles Marchand) based this well-constructed procedural on reports of widespread police misconduct that occurred during the anti-government “Yellow Vest” protests in 2018. Taut and suspenseful, with an outstanding performance by Drucker.