This film by Maïwenn has a subject being very 'inflammatory', if one can put it that way.
Abuse against children is by most people felt as being the worst crime one can commit, partly because children often are totally defensless, partly because the abuse is committed by grown ups in whom children put their trust. This in combination with the fact that children all over the world - whether in economically developed countries or not - are being the victims of often very cruel treatments, to say the least (including torture perpetrated both in war and during 'civil' circumstances or other forms of physical or psychological abuse), creates a lot of emotions around these crimes. This is natural and of course very good as it shows that we have not yet become totally dehumanized in the sense that we can't engage ourselves emotionally. This could be a risk in societies where money and science often cooperate to temper or even silence the natural, logic reactions to these crimes, namely to eradicate the perpetrators from the surface of the Earth.
The director Maïwenn got the idea making this film when she saw a documentary about the 'Child Protection Unit' ('Brigade de Protection des Mineurs') in France. She was given the chance to follow this unit and through these experiences she created this drama.
What we get to see is how a unit like this work and what their goals are but also the different emotions surfacing when they witness children being ill-treated, perhaps meeting the perpetrators who, in some cases, are totally coolheaded, not at all feeling any guilt for what they have done.
How can one endure these confrontations without loosing your emphathy for the victims by shuting off your feelings and at the same time, not wanting to beat the perpreatators to death?!
It's a thin line you have to walk and I know that not all people would be able to handle these experiences in a way that would make them wanting to continue.
This not least as there are no excuses for mistreating your children or others, not least in the terrible way this can be and have been done.
Even if psychologists, other therapists and social scientists have tried to find 'explanations' to unforgivable behaviour - and this only for professional reasons - I have never heard any 'valid' argument being able to explain why these violent acts are committed.
The only explanation is of course that we are humans and as such we have these traits in our personalities but on the same time we have the responsibility to balance them.
If one don't believe in some form of predestination - and I don't - every single human being must be held responsible for the acts he or she commits, even those being diagnosed with some sort of psychological disorder. Why also the latter?
Because these diagnosis are such that they can never be proven right or wrong, meaning that we don't know what goes on in the brain of a person having some kind of psychological or psychiatric diagnosis and there is nothing indicating that people suffering from a psychosis, are not able to estimate the consequences of their actions.
Another aspect this film takes on is the fact that children or adolescents also can lie about these things and this is displayed during a conversation with a young girl. The consequences of these lies - for those being targeted - can of course be disastrous.
Further more: Therapists seeking to determine what a child has gone through, sometimes 'helps' the child in constructing images and explanations not being in congruence with the truth.
This is not explicitly shown in this film but I know through different reportages in TV that they sometimes put arguments or explanations in the mouth of a child when being convinced that something has happened.
The different discussions among the police officers around the work is also well displayed I think, showing that the policemen and -women working with these issues do not always agree neither on how to proceed with the work nor how to tackle different tasks.
This is of course very natural but sometimes one might imagine that they all act as one (wo)man having the one goal before their eyes.
I saw one critic (in the Guardian I think) write that he found the acting being exaggerated ("overacting") and the emotional outbursts to artificial.
I don't agree even though there was one scene between two female police officers, that tended to become a 'two angry cats fighting'-scene but on the whole I think that the feelings were correctly described.
I believe myself that I would find it hard to work with this kind of tasks as I easily would become rancourous (to say the least) against the perpretators.
The end is very surprising - at least I thought so - and dramatic.
One have to admire the police officers and other staff being able to continue such a tough work.
Among the actors we find: Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Foïs, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Maïwenn herself.
(Poster copied from: http://www.cinemactu.com/Cinema/Polisse/Polisse.jpg)
Abuse against children is by most people felt as being the worst crime one can commit, partly because children often are totally defensless, partly because the abuse is committed by grown ups in whom children put their trust. This in combination with the fact that children all over the world - whether in economically developed countries or not - are being the victims of often very cruel treatments, to say the least (including torture perpetrated both in war and during 'civil' circumstances or other forms of physical or psychological abuse), creates a lot of emotions around these crimes. This is natural and of course very good as it shows that we have not yet become totally dehumanized in the sense that we can't engage ourselves emotionally. This could be a risk in societies where money and science often cooperate to temper or even silence the natural, logic reactions to these crimes, namely to eradicate the perpetrators from the surface of the Earth.
The director Maïwenn got the idea making this film when she saw a documentary about the 'Child Protection Unit' ('Brigade de Protection des Mineurs') in France. She was given the chance to follow this unit and through these experiences she created this drama.
What we get to see is how a unit like this work and what their goals are but also the different emotions surfacing when they witness children being ill-treated, perhaps meeting the perpetrators who, in some cases, are totally coolheaded, not at all feeling any guilt for what they have done.
How can one endure these confrontations without loosing your emphathy for the victims by shuting off your feelings and at the same time, not wanting to beat the perpreatators to death?!
It's a thin line you have to walk and I know that not all people would be able to handle these experiences in a way that would make them wanting to continue.
This not least as there are no excuses for mistreating your children or others, not least in the terrible way this can be and have been done.
Even if psychologists, other therapists and social scientists have tried to find 'explanations' to unforgivable behaviour - and this only for professional reasons - I have never heard any 'valid' argument being able to explain why these violent acts are committed.
The only explanation is of course that we are humans and as such we have these traits in our personalities but on the same time we have the responsibility to balance them.
If one don't believe in some form of predestination - and I don't - every single human being must be held responsible for the acts he or she commits, even those being diagnosed with some sort of psychological disorder. Why also the latter?
Because these diagnosis are such that they can never be proven right or wrong, meaning that we don't know what goes on in the brain of a person having some kind of psychological or psychiatric diagnosis and there is nothing indicating that people suffering from a psychosis, are not able to estimate the consequences of their actions.
Another aspect this film takes on is the fact that children or adolescents also can lie about these things and this is displayed during a conversation with a young girl. The consequences of these lies - for those being targeted - can of course be disastrous.
Further more: Therapists seeking to determine what a child has gone through, sometimes 'helps' the child in constructing images and explanations not being in congruence with the truth.
This is not explicitly shown in this film but I know through different reportages in TV that they sometimes put arguments or explanations in the mouth of a child when being convinced that something has happened.
The different discussions among the police officers around the work is also well displayed I think, showing that the policemen and -women working with these issues do not always agree neither on how to proceed with the work nor how to tackle different tasks.
This is of course very natural but sometimes one might imagine that they all act as one (wo)man having the one goal before their eyes.
I saw one critic (in the Guardian I think) write that he found the acting being exaggerated ("overacting") and the emotional outbursts to artificial.
I don't agree even though there was one scene between two female police officers, that tended to become a 'two angry cats fighting'-scene but on the whole I think that the feelings were correctly described.
I believe myself that I would find it hard to work with this kind of tasks as I easily would become rancourous (to say the least) against the perpretators.
The end is very surprising - at least I thought so - and dramatic.
One have to admire the police officers and other staff being able to continue such a tough work.
Among the actors we find: Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Foïs, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Maïwenn herself.
(Poster copied from: http://www.cinemactu.com/Cinema/Polisse/Polisse.jpg)
(Poster 2 copied from: http://www.artistikrezo.com/images/stories/redac3/Stephen_Warbeck_-_bande_originale_de_Polisse_film_de_Maiwenn_Le_Besco_.jpg)
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