The Connection (2014 film)

La French (English lit: The French) aka The Connection as it was released in English speaking regions of the world is Belgian-French crime thriller set during the events of The French Connection during the 1970s.

Plot
1970s Marseille is ruled by a brutal drug gang importing morphine from Turkey, transforming it into heroin and exporting the product to New York under the gang name la French. The gang, led by the cold-hearted Gaètan Tany Zampa, is boosting its income from drug trafficking by doing extortion and robberies. Former Juvenile Court judge Pierre Michel is transferred to an organized crime unit, but finds out that la French's crimes are difficult or impossible to prove and that the police unit investigating heroin trade under Captain Aimé-Blanc has nothing relevant to report.

Following a tip given by one of Michel's informants, the heroin-addicted teenager Lily, they arrest Charles Peretti, an old Corsican chemist who formerly produced heroin for la French. After he refuses to give information about the gang and its leader, preferring to spend the rest of his life in prison rather than risk his life by collaborating with police, the gang murders Lily and her friend, Fabrizio Mandonato, Peretti's nephew. Enraged by Tany killing his informers and because he can find out nothing relevant about the gang, Michel orders all lower cadres of la French arrested, "cutting the octopus' arms". Feeling menaced by the aggressive behaviour of the new judge, one of Tany's lieutenants, "Le Fou", breaks with the gang leader. While trying to take over Zampa's criminal business, Le Fou is shot and wounded by Zampa and his men, but escapes from hospital and begins a bloody feud, killing two of the gang's leaders, Franky and Robert, both close friends of Tany. Enraged and grieving, Tany retaliates by brutally killing Le Fou's girlfriend and numerous innocent bystanders. Fearing the criminal feud will take more lives and appealing to the procurator, Michel manages to get illegal surveillance on all the criminals involved in the feud, successfully avoiding the confrontation between Tany and Le Fou and arresting Le Fou.

Michel suffers an emotional breakdown, caused by his heavy workload and his feelings of helplessness. Michel then has to deal with his wife's gradual abandonment of him. While playing in one of Marseille's casinos controlled by the gang, Michel has a short look in a side room and sees one of the leading figures of the narcotics squad, police veteran Ange Mariette, chatting with Zampa. Pressing the younger cop Alvarez, Michel finds out that Mariette is the leader of a large gang of corrupt Corsican police officers. Mariette and many other officers in the police narcotics team are on Zampa's payroll and tip him off about police investigations.