A Gang Story

In Lyon in the seventies, a group of friends carry out robberies; the press calls them the Lyon Gang. Years later Momon has withdrawn, lives with his family and is trying to leave his past behind. Then his old friend Serge asks him for help. The subject is not crime but the expiry date on loyalty. Momon paid his debt, served his sentence and owes nobody anything; a promise made in youth still binds him, and the tragedy is in how unnecessary that bond is. The form runs in two times: the robberies of the seventies and the reckoning now. The palette is warm in the past sections and cold in the present. The source is Edmond Vidal's own account of his life; the Lyon Gang really existed and Vidal wrote his book after serving his sentence. Olivier Marchal directs, having spent more than fifteen years in the French police, and all of his films come out of that world. Gérard Lanvin plays Momon, with Tchéky Karyo and Daniel Duval as his old friends. Who it is for: viewers who like French crime cinema and stories of ageing gangsters. Who it is not for: anyone expecting something new; the film follows the known steps of the genre and its ending is predictable from the start.