Borgo

Melissa is thirty two and an experienced prison officer. She moves to Corsica with her husband and two children and starts work at Borgo prison, an institution unlike any she has known: real authority lies with the inmates. Saveriu, a young man with influence, takes her under his protection, and the problem of fitting in disappears. Then Saveriu is released, and he gets back in touch. Stéphane Demoustier writes and directs. Hafsia Herzi plays Melissa. The story rests on a real case: the 2017 execution at Bastia airport of Antoine Quilichini and Jean-Luc Codaccioni, two figures from Corsican organised crime, and the appearance of a prison officer's name in the investigation. The film shows the erosion of the line between guard and prisoner one step at a time. Melissa is not a bad person. She simply does, at each stage, the thing that looks reasonable to her, and by the end there is no way back. Herzi won Best Actress at the 2025 César Awards for the performance. Who it is for: viewers who want a prison drama, and the quiet bureaucratic face of a criminal case. Who it is not for: do not expect tension. The film is nearly all calm and rarely shows the violence itself.