Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1992 • France
Starring Didier Bezace, Jean-Paul Comart, Charlotte Kady

This absorbing, unfailingly naturalistic procedural goes inside the world of the Parisian police department as it struggles to control the drug trade. Through the eyes of Lucien Marguet (Didier Bazace)—an ultradetermined narcotics officer obsessed with cleaning up the streets whose fierce dedication to his job puts him in conflict with his often-incompetent colleagues—we experience the city’s underbelly of criminals, dealers, addicts, and sex workers. Astutely avoiding cop-movie cliches, director Bertrand Tavernier offers a clear-eyed, authentically gritty portrait of the complex relationship between those inside and outside the law.