BAC Nord (internationally titled The Stronghold)[4] is a 2021 French action thriller film co-written and directed by Cédric Jimenez from a screenplay by Jimenez and Audrey Diwan, starring Gilles Lellouche, François Civil, Karim Leklou, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Kenza Fortas.

Greg demands a strong police brigade to seize the ghetto, but his senior, Jérôme Bodin, has a chain of command to follow.

Every time Greg picks up fights in the northern neighborhood while catching criminals, he is humiliated because the police can’t use their equipment without authority.

Yass’ wife, Nora, requested other police officers involved to admit they also paid informants with drugs.

The police arrested Amel, and after confirming the existence of the informant, the prosecutor decided to drop the charges of organized drug trafficking.

But, as the health situation (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) did not improve, the cinemas could not reopen and the film's release was postponed to 18 August 2021, as announced by StudioCanal.

The director replied saying he believed on the contrary, that he made "a balanced film, a fiction but where everything is not invented, which does not present the police officers as angels but recalls the complexity of their work".

[19] Le Journal du Dimanche recognizes a “terribly effective urban western [...] and great moments of spectacular cinema such as we rarely see in France with a trio of talented actors giving flesh to borderline characters".

[20] Les Echos regrets the scenario "who takes sides for the innocence of the defendants even before the verdict of the court" but recognizes that "from this reality, the film nevertheless draws its qualities.

[21] The weekly Marianne considered that the film is "realistic and devoid of clichés as much in its representation of the cops as in that of the thugs, the film strikes by its dryness, its darkness, its scriptwriting and formal mastery", while acknowledging that the director “knows what he is talking about and what he is portraying in this harsh and devoid of complacency in which he examines the “codes" of cops and delinquents, sometimes strangely similar”.

[22] The daily La Voix du Nord described the film as a “shocking and spectacular thriller which does not always convince in its societal approach”.

He underlined that with regard to the real history from which Bac Nord is inspired "far from the reality of the facts, this complex affair is here reduced to a story of a loot to be collected to pay an informer".

[32] After a week in theaters, BAC Nord confirmed its status leading with 483,381 admissions, thus achieving the third best start for a French film since the reopening, behind Kaamelott: The First Chapter and OSS 117: From Africa with Love.

[35] The film surpassed the symbolic million admissions mark in its third week in theaters, but lost its leadership following the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

[1][37] Abroad, the film did not benefit from a theatrical release, having been acquired by Netflix for exclusive streaming on its platform under the international title The Stronghold.