IFFR 2017

Olivier Marchal

While chasing a ruthless gang of robbers, two officers from different police forces fight with each other over a soon-to-be vacant position: head of the criminal police. A prime piece of top star-powered action and suspense based on a notorious 1980s case.

Perspectives

Criss-Cross

36 Quai des Orfèvres

Éric Valette

A group of Congolese insurgents captures eight French soldiers. By way of ransom, the French government sends an airplane load of illegal weapons that is shot down and never arrives, leaving quite a few people in high places very nervous. A taut masterpiece of political crime cinema based loosely on Dominique Manotti’s <em>Affairs of State.</em>

Une affaire d'État

Frédéric Schoendoerffer

A team of operatives is on a mission to sink a cargo vessel carrying illegal weapons for a faction in the Angolan Civil War. But then, things start to go wrong. A dark look at the Janus-faced nature of international espionage and counter-terrorism, anchored loosely in the infamous 'Opération Satanique'.

Agents secrets

Julien Leclercq

A group of heist artists gets in trouble with a major narcs outfit. To avoid serious retribution, they have to intercept a go-fast drug run for them. And then things get out of hand. A very urban noir thriller about honour among thieves that plays hard and fast <em>fast f-a-s-t!</em>

Braqueurs

Seven people, four cars, one day to get from Malaga to Paris with a serious load of drugs. When a shoot-out with Spanish cops turns ugly and a French tourist is taken hostage, things get out of hand. A classy exercise in genre existentialism where only space and speed matter.

Le convoi

Olivier Panchot

After killing a member of Marseillaise’s Corsican mafia, Alex, the son of pied-noir gangland kingpin Armande, ducks in a time-honoured way by joining the Foreign Legion. When he returns, several people are waiting for him, but for very different reasons. A Greek tragedy disguised as a grimly serene gangster melodrama.

De guerre lasse

Nicolas Pariser

When has-been literati Pierre meets gambler Joseph, this mysterious man makes him an offer he should have refused. Yet it’s only too understandable he didn’t – it’s not every day one is asked to write a manual for insurrection. An icily elegant allegory about seduction, vanity and the past’s long shadow.

Le grand jeu

Fred Cavayé

A cop and his former colleague now working as the driver of an armoured car find themselves reunited in a fight to the death with the hit squad of Toulon’s Serbian mafia. A bad-ass, lead-heavy, no-holds-barred chase thriller by France’s foremost young action craftsman, Fred Cavayé.

Mea culpa

Mathieu Kassovitz

When in 1988 the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front of New Caledonia took 30 people hostage, the far away capital retaliated – with extreme prejudice. Mathieu Kassovitz uses the ill-fated 'Opération Victor' for a scathing comment on how France deals with the remnants of its colonial empire.

L' ordre et la morale

Franck Mancuso

Suddenly one summer, the wife of Captain Stéphane Monnereau disappears during their vacation. Already psychologically unstable, the cop flips out. An intriguing mix of police procedural and psychological thriller, with a remarkable level of realism in its presentation of an investigation’s inner workings.

R.I.F. (Recherches dans l'intérêt des familles)

Olivier Masset-Depasse

1982: The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party landslide victory in the national elections ends the 'heroic' period in ETA history. Once fêted as anti-fascist freedom fighters, they’re now mere terrorists hunted by various paramilitary vigilante groups in an underground war that doesn't stop at the border to France. Exceptional piece of left-wing agitprop.

Sanctuaire

Philippe Haïm

Student Diane is recruited by France’s external intelligence agency, while the prisoner Pierre is recruited by a terrorist organisation killing in the name of Islam. Two parallel lives are doomed to intersect in this sardonic meditation on how all radicals are more similar than they like to believe.

Secret défense

Wine and drugs, solidarity and xenophobia, neighbours of various origins, chosen outsiders and some very messy political circumstances are the stuff of master Éric Valette’s return to the big screen. A perfect mix of socio-political circumspection and rule-savvy genre craftsmanship that shows how entertainment and enlightenment can still go hand in hand.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025