How Anne Fontaine prepared her film "Police" in the cafeteria of a police station

INTERVIEW

What happens in the minds of ordinary police officers responsible for escorting an illegal immigrant to the borders, when they understand that he risks death by returning to his country?

This is the question asked by

, the film by Anne Fontaine which is released at the cinema on Wednesday.

Or the story of Virginie, Erik and Aristide, played respectively by Virginie Efira, Grégory Gadebois and Omar Sy, who wonder, while they are escorting a stranger to the airport, whether they should not let him escape .

"I met a Roland Barthes from the police"

Confined in the confined space of a car cabin,

is no classic thriller.

"It's like a thriller but emotional, mental", summarizes Anne Fontaine, the director, invited Tuesday on Europe 1 at the microphone of Patrick Cohen.

"There is a tension because we wonder if these police officers will disobey, break the rules. We live through their intimacy, their romantic difficulties, their emotional lives. The prism is totally personalized."

>> Find Patrick Cohen's interviews in Europe midi in replay and podcast here

To write the film, adapted from a book, Anne Fontaine went "to the cafeteria of a Parisian police station".

"This is where a lot of police officers come to have tea, I was able to talk with them and it helped me [to work] on the veracity of the behavior," she says.

A commissioner, in particular, brought him a lot.

"I met a Roland Barthes from the police", laughs the filmmaker, "very intelligent and a philosopher on his job".

The latter "had an almost metaphysical way of expressing himself on what a policeman was, his relationship to existence. It helped me to concretely embody this very particular state in the world."

"Behind a uniform, there are people"

For Anne Fontaine, it was necessary to go beyond the received ideas on the

to succeed

.

"Behind a uniform, there are people. You often have the feeling that the uniform standardizes behavior. It's intriguing, it really helped me get to know [police officers] on a more personal basis."

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The director was also helped a lot by her impeccable cast.

"Virginie [Efira] has something solar, sensual", boasts the director.

Omar Sy is far from his comedy roles.

"I was struck when I met him, by the fragility he gave off and the sweetness. His character should start from the light, the frivolous, to go deeper. He is overwhelming in the film because he is different. "

And Grégory Gadebois, last member of the trio?

"He's a genius."

Simply.