Loin du périph (2022)

Ten years after the events of *On the Other Side of the Tracks*, Ousmane and François have continued their careers separately: Ousmane is a commissioner in the Criminal Brigade, while François is a captain in a district. After a heavy-handed raid on a housing estate and an MMA fight with a suspect that goes viral on social media, Ousmane is summoned by his superiors. In partnership with the Interior Ministry, they offer him the chance to become the new face of a recruitment campaign the government plans to launch. Meanwhile, François is criticized by his colleagues, who feel his behavior is detrimental to the proper conduct of investigations. The former partners run into each other by chance when François discovers half a corpse on a TGV while waiting for his parents at the station. The victim turns out to be a young man named Kevin Marchal, from Valergnes in the Alps. Ousmane decides to go there to examine the other half of the body and escape the recruitment campaign. Thanks to his parents’ connections, François manages to go with him. With help from Alice, their local colleague, they determine that someone shot Kevin while he was riding his motorcycle, and the impact sent him onto the tracks just as the train was passing. Ousmane and François then visit Kevin’s mother and discover that he had turned part of the house into a drug lab. Their investigation next takes them to a strip club, where Kevin used to see one of the employees, Jessica. After a racist joke, Ousmane fights Carl, the bouncer, who does not seem to feel any pain. François uses his Taser on Carl, who eventually collapses from a heart attack. Their dismantling of the lab earns them praise from Commissioner Mercier, Alice’s superior. The inspector takes her colleagues to a restaurant, where Ousmane recognizes the mayor, Antoine Brunner, leader of a far-right political group. Alice explains that the town has been revitalized since her arrival. The next morning, the two inspectors go to a security company, Securitec, where Carl worked. They discover that all the security guards have a tattoo representing the emblem of a militia, “The Sons of Clovis.” François then finds a gun in Carl’s locker. As far as the commissioner is concerned, Kevin supplied Carl with drugs, and Carl killed him after an argument, which closes the case. On the platform for the train to Paris, Ousmane feels the case is not so simple and decides to stay. He and François find Kevin’s friend Kader, who explains that Kevin was afraid of the Sons of Clovis, whom he worked with; that he tried to alert Commissioner Mercier; and that Mercier promised to protect him. Suspecting that Mercier ordered Kevin’s death, the pair follow him to a house—the mayor’s—which Brunner answers the door at and threatens to have them lose their jobs if they do not return to Paris. They do not, and instead tail Mercier, until they are attacked by a 4x4. After sending their attackers plunging into a ravine, Yasmine, a former colleague of Ousmane’s, calls to tell them what Kevin’s drugs contained: methamphetamines that allow people to withstand pain. To continue their investigation, the officers sleep at Alice’s home. Without telling her, they return to Brunner’s house. In the basement, they discover that the mayor and far-right activists, including the Sons of Clovis, have formed an armed group to carry out coordinated attacks on mosques, synagogues, and a migrant center. Kevin had discovered the truth but was murdered, and Mercier was also a member of Brunner’s militia. Ousmane and François then arrive at a factory where Brunner is rallying his troops before launching the assault. François distracts them while Ousmane sabotages their weapons and fights Alice, who turns out to be an ally of Brunner. The armed group is neutralized, but Brunner manages to escape with Alice to the migrant center, where he sets off a bomb. Ousmane and François pursue them, manage to subdue them, and evacuate the occupants. Brunner and Alice are eventually arrested. When news of the events breaks, Ousmane’s superior basks in the glory, and François becomes the face of the recruitment campaign instead. Happy, François is about to shoot a new segment for the recruitment video when Ousmane warns him that an American has been found dead in the Eiffel Tower.