The French director Dominik Moll definitely has a love for gripping police stories. After creating the magnificent police thriller The Night of the 12th in 2022, in which police officers are trying to capture a ferocious killer, he’s now once again returning to the world of police investigations, violence, and chauvinism. In Case 137 (original title: Dossier 137), the tables are turned, though, as this time, the cops are the criminals. Good becomes bad, and bad becomes even worse. The nearly two-hour-long movie, which is a slow-burning portrayal of police repression, brutality, and tension, becomes an immersive experience, during which you will start to question the integrity of the French police and if there’s such a thing as a good cop anymore.
While Case 137 certainly is a police drama, Moll doesn’t overdo it with the dramatic element. Yes, the events happening in this feature are the dramatized version of the Yellow Vest protests in 2018, which led to violent conflicts, many injuries, and arrests in Paris and other major cities. Still, the movie itself isn’t an over-the-top drama at all. That is because the filmmaker uses a much slower and organic approach in bringing the story to the big screen. The script by Moll and Gilles Marchand (Only The Animals) is almost a real-time depiction of Stéphanie Bertrand’s (Léa Drucker) full-scale investigation.
After working in narcotics for the last few years, she had to make the transition to IGPN, the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale, which is the French equivalent of the Internal Affairs Bureau. Despite being seen as a traitor or being disloyal to her heroic colleagues – especially after they were the first ones on the horrific scenes after the Bataclan attacks – this conscientious police officer doesn’t shy away from any case, no matter how much pressure from the outside she’s feeling.
Pressure that she’s definitely feeling when case 137 lands on her desk. At the heart of it is a violent incident in which a young protester, Guillaume Girard (Côme Peronnet), sustained almost fatal injuries after being hit with flash-balls fired by riot police. Just like during a real-life painstaking investigation, she has to collect CCTV footage from the scene of the attack, interrogate culprits, extract cell phone footage, and gather even more written and visual evidence.
On top of that, there’s a lot of bureaucratic paperwork, forensic verification, and sceptical news broadcasts she has to deal with. This mix of media gives much more structure and authenticity to the film and the investigation, especially when Stéphanie’s evidence is combined with real archival footage. Steadily but slowly, Stéphanie and her IGPN partners Benoit Guérini (Jonathan Turnbull) and Camille Delarue (Mathilde Roehrich) build up the case. As the audience member, you go along with her during every phase of her investigation. You don’t have information that Stéphanie doesn’t have, and vice versa.
Like any long-lasting, meticulously planned investigation, Case 137 evokes important questions. These questions are not only for Stéphanie herself but also for the audience. Should she help her colleagues keep France safe when it’s struggling with internal riots instead of interrogating them? Is her job the reason why “everyone hates the police”? When does passionately gathering evidence become stalking and cutting corners? Those are all questions that arise throughout this feature. On top of that, you also start to question whether Stéphanie is a good mother, especially when she comes home late to spend time with her son.
Because of many questions and the male-dominated world that’s riddled with corruption, sexism, and abuse, she has to be determined, unwavering, and unafraid to stand up for what she believes in, and those characteristics come true in Drucker’s (Up to the Guard, Close) engaging central acting. Her performance oozes the intelligence, headstrongness, and focus of a female officer trying to get justice in a divided and politically biased country. The rest of the supporting cast does an impeccable job as well, especially Turnbull (Paris Memories), who offers both the seriousness and the necessary humour, and Guslagie Malanda (The Beast, Saint-Omer), whose radiant screen presence as one of the witnesses fills the movie with raw emotions and humanity.
What could have been a dry and boring exposition of a police investigation like any other is anything but that. While there are a few moments when the intensity of the story decreases a little bit, the movie ultimately becomes an engaging, razor-sharp, and thought-provoking portrayal of contemporary law enforcement in Paris.
Case 137 (Dossier 137) held its World Premiere in the competition section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Director: Dominik Moll
Screenwriters: Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand
Rated: NR
Runtime: 115m
What could have been a dry and boring exposition of a police investigation like any other is anything but that. While there are a few moments when the intensity of the story decreases a little bit, the movie ultimately becomes an engaging, razor-sharp, and thought-provoking portrayal of contemporary law enforcement in Paris.
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GVN Rating
Subtitle translator by day. Film journalist by night.
