Many film-makers would baulk at the idea of setting a drama, a romance at that, in the uneasy setting of a Child Protection Unit against a backdrop of sexual abuse and juvenile exploitation, but French model turned director Maiwenn seems not in the least concerned…
“I am very selfish when I make a film, I just make it and if audiences come with me, they come, otherwise… (audible Gallic shrug)…”
Maiwenn is behind the camera - both on and off screen - for the unsettling Polisse, which has divided viewers' opinion
Her wonderfully French nonchalance is well-placed, as her drama Polisse, set against the unglamorous backdrop of Paris’s Child Protection Unit, has divided critics. Some are huge fans – making it the winner of the 2011 Grand Jury prize at Cannes, and nominating it for 13 Cesars (French Oscars) – while others aren’t so sure (Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian calling it “odd, uncomfortable and patchy”).
The gritty piece certainly isn’t popcorn viewing as the police officers take on child abusers in all their varying forms – family members, sex ring leaders, you name it – while dealing with their own relationship issues in the lunchtime canteen. The first half an hour or so has a documentary feel to it, with some shocking examples of human behaviour laid bare, but Maiwenn claims there was no political motivation behind these scenes:
“I wasn’t shocked, because I wasn’t looking for sensationalistic elements, I was more interested in how the unit functions on a day-to-day basis, and how they keep their humour and stay human. That’s why I spent so long with them in the nightclub.”
Maiwenn (left) played the role of photographer Melissa, sent to chronicle the police officers at work
Ah yes, the nightclub scene – the turning point in the film where the unsettling episodes of their professional lives give way to a more straight dramatic ensemble piece, including the most intense, sensitive officer Fred (Joey Starr) falling into the arms of Melissa, a photographer sent to chronicle the unit at work – and played, bizarrely, by Maiwenn herself.
Suddenly, these two are off on a passionate romantic journey amid the debris of all these broken lives.
“That was to show the man at the centre,” explains Maiwenn, “so involved in his work, and the challenge of how he handles becoming emotional about something else.
“Plus, adding a love story helped avoid it becoming too much of a chronicle, to lend the film some luminosity in what was becoming a very dark tale.”
Polisse shows the police officers dealing with some of the darkest aspects of huma behaviour
She’s not wrong, and the mood isn’t undone any by an extremely strange ending. But this film takes a gradual grip on the viewer, perhaps because Maiwenn is being honest when she says that she has no real intent other than to tell an unusual story…
“I would love to make a political message, and maybe I have subconsciously, but it’s not that clear in my head.”
Polisse is in UK cinemas now. Watch the trailer below…