The Stronghold: Cédric Jimenez freely adapts a real story, with a minor slip: in reality, it was more than simply a case of “complex policing”. In any case, it is a reasonably muscular genre film, with the fictional cops intent on the greater good even if they must toe the line a bit in their fight against drug trafficking and crime, but are shackled by the establishment. Gilles Lellouche, Karim Leklou, and François Civil play the three hot-headed cops, who for most of the film are almost interchangeable; they are all solid in their roles. Adèle Exarchopoulos plays a token wife, without much to do. The film is very capably done: the editor Simon Jacquet gives the film great pacing, building up the tension in all the right places; the director of photography, Laurent Tangy, uses a nervous camera to increase the urgency of the action.