French Drama: Polisse 2011 Movie hiting some festivals

At the Cannes Film Festival, Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter compared the film to "a whole season of The Wire packed into a single two-hour-plus film, ... and even with its loose threads and frenzied structure, it convincingly jumps from laughter to tears and back again, never losing sight of the brutal realities at its core." In Screen Daily's review from the festival, Jonathan Romney called Maïwenn "undeniably a very strong director of actors, especially when it comes to the delicate scenes involving the various children. She's less adept, though, at judging what is dramatically essential and what is surplus to requirements". The film won the Cannes Film Festival's Jury Prize.Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian newspaper was much less positive. He described the film as "a strong contender for the most awful film of the competition" and "much of it feels like a pretty dodgy evening in front of the television: less The Wire, more The Bill. But I don't think any director of The Bill would have permitted the toe-curlingly embarrassing overacting we get in this movie".Peter Schöning, defined in his review for German Der Spiegel "Poliss(e)" as "a cry for help which became a film." ("Poliezei", das ist ein Film gewordener Hilferuf...)

He added this was "not merely because of the abused children and young delinquents whose cases Maïwenn mentions in her film without showing pictures of them..." (Nicht nur der kindlichen Missbrauchsopfer und jugendlichen Missetäter wegen, deren Fälle Maïwenn in ihrem Film zur Sprache bringt, ohne sie im Bild selbst vorzuführen...) but "...as well because of those policemen who have to enforce the law but moreover have to perform a great deal of social work - hereby permanently being overstrained." (... auch aufgrund jener Polizisten, die zwar der Strafverfolgung dienen, vor allem aber Sozialarbeit leisten - und dabei durchweg überfordert sind.) He concludes: "Despite all the ugly things told in this film Polisse has a beauty which derives from its pursuit of truthfulness." ("Poliezei" besitzt bei all dem Hässlichen, von dem der Film zu berichten hat, eine Schönheit, die aus seinem Streben nach Wahrhaftigkeit stammt). Spiegel Online supplemented this review by an in-depth interview with the film's director.The film centres on the Child Protection Unit (Brigade de Protection des Mineurs) of the Paris Police, and a photographer who is assigned to cover the unit. The title is a childish spelling of the word "police". The film won the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and in 2012, was nominated for thirteen César Awards.