Little Lieutenant by Xavier Beauvois (France, 2005, 110 min.). Director Xavier Beauvois’ César-nominated drama is not your standard policier. New police lieutenant Antoine Derouère (Jalil Lespert, The Last Mitterrand) is so keen to tackle crime head-on, that he joins a plainclothes crime unit in Paris, even though it means leaving his wife behind in Normandy. Most of his new colleagues look at work as just a daily grind, but he impresses Commandant Caroline Vaudieu (Nathalie Baye, who won the César for Best Actress for the role), a recovering alcoholic who takes a motherly interest in the rookie lieutenant. His work takes a dark turn when the unit investigates a murder, and Antoine’s passion for the case and his partner’s disinterest in it lead to a tragedy that rocks the department. Beauvois is not that interested in crime, per se, instead preferring to chart the personalities inside the station house and the cyclical nature of a job.

Description adapted from the San Francisco Film Festival.