The Temple Woods Gang Review: Social realism meets the crime thriller

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeeche opens the Temple Woods gang with a calm urgency and places us on a specific roof with a view of the Bois du Temple Housing Project. The film immediately feels lived: sun bleached facades, pigeon stalls and the steamed sum of remote traffic. Through a subtle camera movement, we meet Monsieur Pons, a grieving ex-Sniper, whose personal loss throws a silent shadow about the upcoming story.

From there, the narrative shifts into a true attack from 2014: a small crew of friends in the neighborhood led by the eager Bébé, the luggage car of a wealthy prince of the Middle East. Ameur-Zaïmeche balancers the spontaneity in the vérité style with carefully framed set pieces and makes the predatory pulse with authenticity. You can feel the director's art house roots in every long recording and off-beat reaction, but the kinetic dynamics of the plot are never up.

This is not a routine thriller. The contrast between adrenaling-driven action-in tense shoulder-free shots on the highway, well-groomed and trunk, …