The Stronghold

The Stronghold follows three police officers in Marseille who have grown weary of low-level cases and see an opportunity to take down a large drug operation. When an informant tied to the network makes a demanding request, their pursuit becomes complicated, and the line between their duty and the methods they use starts to blur. The story is set in the city's northern districts, where the unit faces pressure to produce results in a high-crime area.

Cédric Jimenez directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Audrey Diwan. The film is the third feature in Jimenez's directing career, arriving after The Connection (2014) and The Man with the Iron Heart (2017), and before November (2022) and Dog 51 (2025). Gilles Lellouche, François Civil and Karim Leklou play the three officers, with Adèle Exarchopoulos, Cyril Lecomte and Kenza Fortas also in the cast.

Produced by StudioCanal, France 2 Cinéma and Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, the film had a budget of about 14 million USD and earned roughly 18 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 6.9 rating from around 16,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a 7.3 from roughly 1,400 votes, suggesting viewers responded more positively than the small group of critics whose reviews average 4.7 out of 10.