San Diego Reader

A churning, driven French film about a child-protection unit of the Paris police and how the harsh impact of their work (re: prostitution, violence, abandonment, pedophilia) lacerates their lives even as it bonds them. The director Maïwenn cast herself as a photographer who falls for the unit’s sensitive hothead (vivid Joeystarr, a rapper). Despite stunning intimacies (an African boy losing his homeless mom, a raped girl facing her stillborn infant), the emotive shrapnel and volatile close-ups can make you feel you’ve been caught in a crudely compressed TV series. 2012.

— David Elliott

• View trailer
• Rated NR | 2 hours, 7 minutes
• Official website

This movie is not currently in theaters.