Polisse

Maïwenn’s vibrant crime drama POLISSE is the smash hit from France that follows the daily lives of a tightly-knit team of men and women working in the Child Protection Unit of the Parisian police. Basing her richly textured script on real child investigation cases, co-writer/director/co-star Maïwenn has gathered an accomplished ensemble cast of French actors—including Karin Viard, Marina Foïs, co-writer Emmanuelle Bercot, Nicolas Duvauchelle, and rapper-turned-actor Joeystarr—who convey the emotional strain of the unit's work with gritty realism (the director herself plays the role of a photographer embedded within the unit). They not only deal with the stress of their jobs but with the inevitable fall-out in their personal lives—breakdowns, divorce and adulterous relations within the force. In between, there are frequent flashes of humor as the team attempts to diffuse daily realities. As the cases, confessions and interrogations pile up, the squad members have only each other as support as they face an uphill battle against both criminals and bureaucracy.

FESTIVALS & AWARDS
2011 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, IN COMPETITION : WINNER, JURY PRIZE
2012 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
2012 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
2012 COLCOA
2012 INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL BOSTON
2012 SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
NOMINATED FOR 13 CÉSAR AWARDS


Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, nominated for 15 César Awards (including two wins) and soon to be seen at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival.

“Genuinely complex…delivers the same absorbing, sprawling narrative as a good prime-time cop drama, delving into the lives of its tough, compassionate protagonists with a bracing combination of moral outrage and breathtaking hilarity. As unthinkable as it sounds that a film about the exploitation of children could make filmgoers cry and laugh, Maïwenn has threaded that needle with surprising, altogether winning aplomb.”
–Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

“A thrilling kitchen-sink crime drama. I wanted to go wherever Maïwenn wanted to take me. Her filmmaking paces and perceives the way Frederick Wiseman's does. It's as if she's taken one of his documentaries about systems and their discontents and added Sidney Lumet's grit, naturalism, and fireworks.”
–Wesley Morris, Boston Globe