No, this film has little to do with Victor Hugo’s story, but is a seething indictment of modern day government callousness and cruelty, set in the Projects outside of Paris (but just as well could have been set in many big cities, where to many immigrants and other minorities the police seem like an occupying army). Director Ladj Ly has us follow a three-man anti-crime unit, one of whom, recently transferred from a smaller town, is new to the team and not at all pleased at how his partners behave as they show the citizens who is the boss. It doesn’t take too long before an altercation, to put it mildly, between the unit and a young boy sets the community ablaze, figuratively and literally. Intense and emotionally tough, this story could have easily been a documentary. (Subtitles.)
