User Reviews

This film is of course inspired from actual events that happened during the sixties till the early eighties in France. During those times, there were groups of gangsters and policemen who worked together underground, in the broderline manner, to serve the political campaigns, finance them thru bank robberies, racket, drug traffic, getting rid of opponents of any kind. Gangsters received police cards to serve this undergound group - Service d'Action Civique - and of course they were totally free to continue their criminal business. It was the dark side of De Gaulle reign just after French Algerian war. This is an awesome topic, that could have been made by Yves Boisset, though the latest evoked it in LE JUGE FAYARD DIT LE SHERIFF. So, in this film, it is explained how this worked and also how it finished, by a family slaughter in the south of France, where SAC members wanted to kill one of their members whom they did not trust anymore, but the operation failed, so they panicked and to get rid of witnesses, they killed the wife and children. This marked the end of this group. Very interesting and very brave, bold, to speak of this period. Canal Plus network was brave to show this, as they also made 93, Rue Lauristion - see my comment - about the French Gestapo during WW2. Tcheky Karyo and Simon Abkarian are absolutely awesome here, terrific in their brutal roles. Not for the good family audiences, in the American one manner. It is disgusting, disturbing, nasty, but so excellent. The very last image is the best of the whole.