Qu'un sang impur...

The films made by the French about the Algerian war were not so numerous. And I guess Rachid Bouchareb would not have given the same product for the same subject, the same topic. Remember what he did with INDIGENES and HORS LA LOI. Very good movies but so didactic, features where he told you what to think, where the French were always the evil ones and the Arabs the good ones. Here, nothing like this, and it is made by an Algerian born director, an excellent screen writer too. There is not such scheme in this awesome, brutal, gritty film, where the evils guys are on both sides. This film shows us how awful was this tragedy. Terrific performances, including Olivier Gourmet, as a renegade French officer. Yes, this basic scheme, plot could remind APOCALYPSE NOW, except that Olivier Gourmet is not Marlon Brando.

I think this movie is easily one of all-time Top 10 War films, and I'm not French or Algerian.

Nothing is predictable or black and white here, so realistic and gritty, the locations and actors are very authentic.

The characters pull you into their lives and the dialogue shines through even as subtitles. There are no winners in a war and the films shows it very well, makes you want to find out more about what happened in Algeria in 1960.