Director Ladj Ly’s masterful urban thriller is set in his own hometown, the same explosive under privileged Paris banlieue of Montfermeil from Victor Hugo’s famous novel. Ly's prizewinning film parallels two provocatively powerful plotlines that leave us on the edge of our seats!
The film follows a 3-man crime unit’s perilous day patrolling streets and housing projects. The team’s rookie is an idealistic cop from the provinces new to the violent Paris suburbs. A gypsy circus, teen-age gangs, drug dealers, and the Muslim Brotherhood, all try to muscle-in for a piece of “the hood”. Streetwise kids, hardened thugs and cynical cops populate a place that the French authorities appear to have abandoned...