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5h ago

‘Stups’ Opens in France With Rare Inside-the-Courtroom Look at Marseille’s Drug Cases

Critics say the inside access lays bare a justice system stretched by petty trafficking, reflecting social neglect that sustains it.

« Ce qui frappe chez ces accusés, raconte la co-réalisatrice Alice Odiot, c’est leur utilisation de tout le langage "corporate" appliqué au milieu des stupéfiants. »
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Les magistrats paraissent souvent dépassés par le rapport mal adapté des sanctions prévues par la loi et des trajectoires d’individus en dérive sociale, voire montrant les premiers signes d’une pathologie psychiatrique.

Overview

  • Released in cinemas on October 1, the 1h26 documentary by Alice Odiot and Jean-Robert Viallet observes proceedings without voice‑over or interviews.
  • The filmmakers secured exceptional permission to film comparution immédiate hearings inside the Marseille courthouse, with defendants’ consent, and captured detention cells rarely seen on camera.
  • The film centers on very young, low‑level roles in the drug trade—lookouts, stash keepers, drivers—often marked by precarious work and addiction.
  • Judges and lawyers appear overwhelmed by the scale and social damage of the parallel narcotics economy, in one of France’s most burdened courts for drug cases alongside Bobigny.
  • Reviews frame the work as a corrective to sensational portrayals of Marseille, highlighting heterogeneous defendants and questioning punitive policies amid weakened schools, healthcare and community support.