It's clear after only five minutes into this French film that our Gallic cousins go about things slightly differently, particularly where law and order is concerned.

It appears that the French equivalent of our Child Protection Services, known as the Child Protection Unit, is actually a department within the police force. This film (the title of which is a childish spelling of the word 'police'), focuses on the team who make up this department and gives an insight into what they do on a day to day basis.

The CPU are on hand to protect those who need protecting the most: children. The men and women of this team have to deal with some truly horrific crimes (based on real cases), many of which involve family members of the children concerned.

On the surface, it looks like much of what they have to face, hardly affects them. But it soon becomes apparent that it takes its toll on them deeply on a psychological level.

And as they say on US TV, let us be careful out there, no?

With hardly any incidental music involved, the film resembles that of a fly-on-the-wall documentary; the camera capturing slices of life as lived by CPU officers. To that end the film lacks any kind of narrative to drive it, which only reinforces its documentary feel.

The cast includes a Braquo reunion for Karole Rocher (who plays Roxanne in the show) and Nicolas Duvauchelle (Theo), who yet again get to play police partners. It also includes a role for its director Maïwenn, who has a regular habit of appearing in the films she also directs.

Although one or two of the cases the unit work on are genuinely touching, any sign of justice is completely removed as those who commit these heinous crimes are never seen to be punished.

It also gets a little melodramatic in places, but then that could be just down to the French for you.

It's difficult at times to consider the CPU an actual police department. There's a scene, for instance, that involves the team brushing up on their shooting skills. Can a department that exists purely to protect the safety of children really run around Paris with guns? Apparently so.

There's also another scene that sees the entire department go out to celebrate a success, which kind of implies that it doesn't happen very often. So carrying guns doesn't appear to give them an edge then.

Despite a few strong scenes by a number of individuals, without a strong script, the film lacks structure and characters with any real emotional depth.

Don't let the title fool you; this is not another French entry into their recent run of crime dramas akin to Gang Story and Mesrine. In fact it has more in common with a Ken Loach kitchen sink drama than any of those titles.

As a project then, it doesn't quite work as a cinematic release, but perhaps Maïwenn missed a trick as it had the potential to make an unusual dramatic TV series.