4.5/5

Review by John P. Harvey.

Set during the widespread “yellow vests” protests from late 2018 to mid 2020 over tax inequities in France, and based on actual events, Case 137 introduces us to police investigator Stéphanie Bertrand (Léa Drucker). Stéphanie heads up a unit in the French National Police General Inspectorate (IGPN), the body responsible for investigating police malfeasance, including brutality.

The unit’s case no. 137 concerns an allegation of unwarranted violence against a demonstrator, Guillaume Girard (Côme Péronnet).

Guillaume had been walking with his friend Rémi Cordier (Valentin Campagne) after attending a demonstration when they encountered a group of five plainclothes armed police from whom they ran. Two of these policemen fired upon Guillaume and Rémi as they ran away, causing Guillaume a critical head injury. Stéphanie’s unit has the task of identifying the officers and collecting evidence of what occurred.

Drucker shows in the subtlest ways the conflicting pressures that Stéphanie is under. They include on the one hand the anguish of her son, Victor (Solàn Machado-Graner), at the impression that everybody hates the police; the attitude of many fellow police officers concerning police overreaction to rioting; and the accusation by her ex-husband, a police officer who used to work with Stéphanie in narcotics, that she is betraying her calling.

On the other hand, Stéphanie knows that she and her fellow investigators must uphold police integrity if the force is not to lose all of its good officers. Her conscience is also awake to pleas by members of the public for real accountability for police brutality.

With snappy editing and camerawork whose continual movement reinforces the strong pacing, Case 137 brings home the truth of the price of compromise on fundamental human-rights principles: that we all lose something of our humanity.

Screening at Palace cinemas.