Very well executed

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

French screenwriter, actress and director Maïwenn's third feature film which she co-wrote with French screenwriter, actress and director Emmanuelle Bercot, is inspired by the directors research and observations during the time she spent with the child protection unit in France. It premiered In competition at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival in 2011, was screened in the Competition section at the 22nd Stockholm International Film Festival in 2011, was shot on locations in France and is a French production which was produced by producer Alain Attal. It tells the story about Iris, Nadine, Chrystelle, Sue-Ellen, Nora, Fred, Mathieu, Gabriel, Bamako and Balloo who are working at the child department within the law enforcement in the capital city of France, and who one day is introduced by their superintendent named Beauchard to a photographer named Mélissa Zaïa whom has been assigned to make a photo-book for the police department. Distinctly and subtly directed by French filmmaker Maïwenn, this finely paced and somewhat fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a commendably authentic and increasingly heartrending portrayal of the interdependence, collaboration, conflicts and dedication within a police unit. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, reverent cinematography by cinematographer Pierre Aïm, film editing by film editors Yann Dedet and Laure Gardette and use of sound, colors and light, this dialog-driven and interchangeably character-driven story about the everyday life, courageousness and priceless necessity of men and women who on a regular basis are confronted with amongst others fathers and mothers who have maltreated their children, the fast transition between cases to avoid personal involvement and how this affects their mentality, their views on people and their private lives, depicts multiple dense and interrelated studies of character and contains a great and timely score by English composer Stephen Warbeck. This situational, eloquently humorous and contrastingly though harmonically romantic drama which is set in Paris, France in the 21st century and where men and women who either are parents themselves or are about to become parents are listening to numerous children and youths who have been encouraged to criminality and subjected to sexual crimes, and parents who either believes that child abuse is an appropriate way of child fostering or sneeringly claims that having connections with high class citizens pardons them from molesting their wives and children, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, distinct realism, merging of the children and adults' viewpoints, coherent interplay and the involving and heartfelt acting performances by French actresses Karin Viard, Marina Fïos, Emmanuelle Bercot, Naidra Ayadi, Karole Rocher and French musician and actor Joeystarr. An engagingly conversational, humanely sociological and reflectively cinematographic narrative feature.

i can't believe this movie is only rate just about 7. it should be around 9. i understand that no one has the same feeling towards anything. but this movie is definitely a must watch.i read some reviews that acting was bad. really? do you see any American movies with this kind of acting level at all? i would say generally European actors and actresses are just way above. i thought acting was so flawless, i didn't feel like i was watching a movie. and all movies must be like this. you should not feel like you are watching a movie. it must becomes a real situation around you.story is meant to be like this. it is like a montage of their everyday job. i can't believe so many people nagging about there is no cohesive story. really? then how do you watch any TV show? they are pretty much independent of other episodes. or anything else really...and i really wish i could understand french better. i am sure that actual french script is much vulgar than the subtitles.i particularly love the scene where they laugh their ass off when the girl told them that she was doing it to get her phone back. i actually laughed as they laughed. it shows you that they (CPU) deal this kind of ridiculous thing everyday. i never visited this kind of institution, but when i went to police station few times, i witnessed some crazy and ridiculous things like this. and i didn't stay there for hours. i am very sure CPU would actually get some absolutely crazy stuff everyday. they laughed because it is a laughing matter. that is what the movie is telling you. a minor girl should not do such thing just to get her phone back. OK? i also read that someone watched this movie with a social worker. and they hated this movie. i actually don't understand why. as mentioned above, when i went to police stations, i saw multiple officers doing things with a criminals or victims. i see that this movie the director tries to make the office a little more cheerful than it really is. i bet this kind of offices are actually dead serious and boring. but i don't get why this is such a far fetch from the reality. maybe the director wanted to depict the whole thing (office environment or whatever) as a different thing.if you are a fan of "Gomorrah", then you will love this movie. i rate this movie as high as that movie. and in fact, both movies are based on true stories.this is a movie. not a real documentary. OK? although it was based on a true story, nothing in this movie is real. so take it as a movie, not as a documentary. and even documentaries have some fake or false information. it is impossible to make anything 100% real, unless it is real. OK? LOVE this movie so much!!!

It started quite well, but after a while, I found it incomprehensible the way the team handle the cases. They were so extremely aggressive and often quite vile: asking the woman about her sex life in a such a rude manner, as she was the culprit or the girl who lost her phone, laughing in her face. Or the way the harass the girl who's just had a stillbirth. Really? This is how police deal with sensitive cases? I don't think so. And multiple agents interviewing people seemed unreal as well. Dealing with some of the crimes would no doubt be hard to deal with and difficult to keep emotions in check, but there is no professional conduct, no calm, collective approach or even respect and that seems outrageous. Shocking film.

This French drama is set inside the Child Protection Unit of the Paris police. This is the unit that deals with crimes involving children and crimes against children, and some of the material here is supposedly based on actual cases. Actress, co-writer and director Maitwenn Le Besco has obviously thoroughly researched the background of the Unit, and she brings a documentary-like realism to the material through the use of hand held cameras, rapid cutting between scenes, overlapping story lines, and natural performances from an ensemble cast. There are some strong and unsettling moments interspersed throughout the film. Some of the characters are more fully developed than others, and this creates an uneven balance. A photojournalist (played by the director herself) is assigned to record the activities of the unit, and she becomes embedded and gets swept up in some of their activities. The members of the specialist unit seek catharsis for their stress through drink, casual sex, and inappropriate black humour. It is often demanding and draining work, as they often witness some of the worst deprivations in society, and the horrors that they deal with on a daily basis take their toll, both personally and professionally. With its mix of black humour, police procedural, tired melodrama and action, Polisse sometimes comes across like the pilot episode for a TV series about the CPU, sort of like a frenetic cross between The Wire and Law & order: SVU.