Based on Jean Pelegri's novel,this is a movie which was never shown in any movie theater since 1962;to this day ,French TV never screened it.
Jean Pelegri portrays his own father in the movie which deals with the situation of the Pieds Noirs (French settlers in North Africa ,particularly Algeria).
A man living in France comes back to his native Algeria to visit his dying father;the death of a father which is also the end of French Algeria.
As he walks around a land where there are soldiers everywhere,he remembers his childhood :his father who grew vines ,who owned a big farm and who loved the land .The little boy made friends with the young Arabs ,but he already felt ("the year begins after Christmas" )the cultural and religious differences ;When the father makes his laborers treat the vineyard with copper sulfate,one of them protests:"here lies a marabout's tomb".
The movie does not pass over in silence the man's exploitation of man ,as the last conversation between Jean and his Algerian friend shows.
This is a very accessible movie,in black and white,filmed on location,by an American director who studied at the french IDHEC (institute of superior cinematographic studies).Non professional actors.
