Newly transferred to the bustling port city of Marseille to assist with a crackdown on organized crime, energetic young magistrate Pierre Michel is given a rapid-fire tutorial on the ins and outs of an out-of-control drug trade. Pierre's wildly ambitious mission is to take on the French Connection, a highly organized operation that controls the city's underground heroin economy and is overseen by the notorious —and reputedly untouchable— Gaetan Zampa. Fearless, determined and willing to go the distance, Pierre plunges into an underworld world of insane danger and ruthless criminals.
Acting
Dujardin's slow-burn unraveling from idealist to zealot.
Production
Marseille recreated so vividly you can smell the pastis and desperation.
Direction
Jimenez channels Friedkin without imitation, finding his own rhythm.
Director
Cédric Jimenez
Jean Dujardin
Judge Pierre Michel
Gilles Lellouche
Gaëtan 'Tany' Zampa
Céline Sallette
Jacqueline Michel
Mélanie Doutey
Christiane Zampa
Benoît Magimel
'Le Fou'
Guillaume Gouix
Inspector José Alvarez
Bruno Todeschini
'Le Banquier'
Féodor Atkine
Gaston Deferre
Moussa Maaskri
Franky Manzoni
Pierre Lopez
Jean Paci
Eric Collado
Robert
Cyril Lecomte
Marco Da Costa
Jean-Pierre Sanchez
Fabrizio Mandonato
Georges Neri
Charles Peretti
Martial Bezot
Martial Salin, 'Le gitan'
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Cédric Jimenez grew up in Marseille and his father was a police commissioner during this actual era, lending the film autobiographical texture.
This is essentially France's answer to The French Connection — literally, since it depicts the same drug network from the European side that Friedkin's film showed from New York's perspective.
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FR
