Fleet of foot and fiery of belly, this new Les Mis is an attention-commanding debut from a filmmaker with a finger on his home town's ever-quickening pulse.

Slips stealthily from astute observation to urgent action, reminding us of Hugo's maxim that "there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators."

It is the most incendiary crime film to emerge from French cinema since Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine.

Les Misérables examines the valid reasons why those without a social voice turn to violence for expression, while acknowledging that violence as part of a cycle of retribution that must be broken at all costs.