When grumpy (anti) heroes wake up, then like to go with a hangover. As a rule, everything is already said: inner demons, against the system, the escape from your own past. Even Zem, an ex-junkie who is now traveling as a street marter cop in the “Zone 3” title-giving “Zone 3” from Paris, could have been easily introduced with this cliché. But instead of his excessive alcohol consumption of the evening before, Zem stumbled across the milk boxes stacking in the kitchen after awakening. He has often called the delivery service hotline to report that the button for the automatic reorder was defective. Unfortunately, the AI scolding does not go any more creative afterwards.
Instead, “November” director Cédric Jimenez, based on the novel “Hund 51”*, a science fiction catering thriller, which mixes up well-known offset pieces of the genre and in which from the start it is more than less obvious what this will result in all of this. Nevertheless, you can have a good time with “Zone 3”-if you only approach the right expectations and generally enjoy the straight-line sci-fi thrillers, especially the nineties and early two thousands. Especially since Jimenez implemented his future scenario of a Paris divided into three zones (1 = elite, 2 = privileged, 3 = the miserable rest) with a pleasantly reduced level of CGI effects.
Zem Sparak (Gilles Lellouche) from Zone 3 and Salia Malberg (Adèle Exarchopoulos) from Zone 2, despite all their opposites, must be pulled together if they want to find out of the conspiracy mess again.
When the developer of Alma, a comprehensive KI for fighting crime, is shot in Paris, Zone-2 investigator Salia Malberg (Adèle Exarchopoulos) takes over. Although there is apparently not that much to investigate, after all, her boss, the Interior Minister Alexandre Maupertuis (Romain Duris), announces surprisingly quickly that John Mafram (Louis Garrel), the leader of the “Wallbreaker” resistance movement, is behind the attack.
But then a second body appears in “Zone 3”, which is why Salia is for better or bad to work on the further investigation with the Sparak (Gilles Lellouche), which is responsible there. At first he does not believe in his new, much more elegant partner. But there is no time for any animosities, because apparently there is a much bigger matter behind the murders than the unequal duo would ever have been possible …
Spent on the right things
“Zone 3” cost a rumored $ 42 million. This is a lot of money for European production. But what is much more important anyway: you can also see where the whole coal went! Certainly, Cédric Jimenez cannot keep up in all technical aspects with four to six times as expensive Hollywood blockbusters, but most of the sets and a large part of the action, including bright autocarambolages, obviously do without an excess of computer effects. A really pleasant surprise, especially in a film that deals with the possible pitfalls of a potentially almighty surveillance AI. But while “Zone 3” is gratifyingly classic in this regard, you would have liked more fresh ideas elsewhere:
In his year of publication, the underlying book was recognized as a “favorite novel of the French booksellers”, but at the same time it was repeatedly pointed out that the author Laurent Gaudé, which has long been highly regarded in other genres, would rely too much on well-known tropics and clichés in his first scent of sci-fi. A weakness that the film adaptation-despite a future karaoke scene-cannot strip: If you ask about the credits, which films were probably as a model, everyone will be able to downgrade a whole series of titles. However, if you ask for ideas that you have never seen anywhere else, in addition to the milk order, a commitment is more likely to spread.
Gilles Lellouche (as a director) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (as the leading actress) have recently worked together at the French megahit “Beating Hearts”.
The fact that “Zone 3” proves to be over his two stars: Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue is a warm color”), which is more entertaining about his-rather scarce-for the genre anyway-as a result of 105 minutes as continuously. “Beating Hearts” director Gilles Lellouche, even if one would have bought a father-daughter relationship rather than an erotic romance.
In this case that is also amusing Product placement: The French fashion company Lacoste is already mentioned as a co-producer in the opening creditor, and director Cédric Jimenez also worked closely with the group when designing the costumes. The ravers all wear futuristic Lacoste costumes on a kind of sci-fi-love parade. At the same time, a gigantic LED advertising table with Lacoste spots-in the middle of all the crumbled buildings of Zone 3. An enlightened island of decadence in the middle of the inhumane conditions of a separated society you can see from the ZEMS apartment window.
Conclusion: Radlined sci-fi displacement thriller, as they were abandoned two decades ago, but have become (unfortunately) less common since then. The scenario is certainly not the most original and even bigger surprises, but action and sets have a pleasantly handmade vibe, while the stars Gilles Lellouche and Adèle Exarchopoulos contribute coherent chemistry.
We saw “Zone 3” at the Venice Film Festival 2025, where he celebrated his world premiere as a final film.