CRIMSON RIVERS
aka LES RIVIERES POURPRES

Year: 2000
USA: Screen Gems
UK: Columbia Pictures
Cast: Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel, Nadia Fares, Dominique Sanda, Karim Belkhadra, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Didier Flamand, Philippe Nahon, Francine Berge, François Levantal, Christophe Bernard
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Country: France
Language: French
USA & UK: 105 mins
USA Rated: R for violence/grisly images and language
UK Certificate: 15 contains infrequent strong bloody horror, violence and coarse language
USA Release Date: 29 June 2001 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 8 June 2001

Synopsis

Commissaire Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno), an experienced policeman, is sent to Guernon to investigate a bizarre murder near an exclusive private school isolated in the Alps. However it's no straight forward murder; the killer has been very methodical, leaving twisted inexplicable clues to his motive. Complicating matters are the school administrators, who are uncooperative to say the least to Niemans' questioning.

Meanwhile an impetuous young policeman, Lieutenant Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel), who was a former car thief, arrives at a desecrated graveyard 180 miles away. Someone has disturbed the grave of a child who died twenty years before.

These two seemingly random events are about to collide as the separate investigations lead the detectives right to one another. The more experienced Niemans begrudgingly joins forces with the brash Max to track down the killer. Despite his ribbing and constant sarcastic banter, Max respects the older cop. The two crimes are certainly linked--but how? What could the prestigious school possibly have to hide?