Police movies usually depict non-existent world of policing. Car chases, massive shootouts, constant excitement- bread and butter of Hollywood, very often tired, crime genre. " The BAC NORD" or " the Stronghold" is a different kind of movie. The city of Marseille, rough and crime ridden, gangsters holding whole housing projects hostage and the police force underpaid, not above corruption, but working in impossible circumstances. Upper police echelons worrying about their careers and crime statistics, politicians taking care of the number one, themselves. No loyalty, no reward, no hope. Gritty, harsh movie, at times screaming in your face, but how else to portray the city abandoned and ravished. Blinding sunlight, dusty air and the strong sense of inevitable disaster to come. Whatever comes the politicians will survive, like cockroaches after the nuclear explosion.