One night, a few friends meet in a house to play cards. End of the plot. For sure, the interest does not lie in the "action". Can this be called a slice of life then? Well, yes, in a way. But, if I may put it so, a slice of "bitter life", or should I say a bitter slice of life? To begin with, "Rue Tartarin" does not take place anytime and anywhere and the characters are not ordinary people leading an uneventful life. The year is 1957 ; the house is a rickety hut built as best as possible in the shantytown of Nanterre somewhere in the Paris region. As for the protagonists, they are Algerian immigrants who try desperately to have a good time together. For them indeed, fun is a hard thing to get: how can they actually concentrate on their game when they are both assaulted by nostalgia and distressed by the future of their native country (will Algeria ever become independent; and if it does, will things really improve?)... And how not to feel worried when the Citroën Traction Avant of the French police regularly prowls by?... To say nothing of their "brothers" who, outside their shaky walls, settle their scores and execute so-said traitors...
Yet, at the end of the film, nothing has really happened to the characters (although one of them does court disaster at a time). However this lack of strong storyline has not prevented your interest from being kept aroused to the end. Which goes to show, if it were still necessary, that action is not everything. Otherwise, Okacha Touita's short would not leave such a lasting impression on you: you do not escape unscathed from the heavy insidious atmosphere the director has immersed you in. Admitted, tragedy has not struck the characters directly but is that such good news ? Doesn't the threat remain in the air unchanged?
Another great quality is Touita's choice to deal with a too often overlooked aspect of the Algerian War, namely the infighting between the two main Liberation Movements, the National Liberation Front (FLN) vs. the Algerian National Movement (MLN), which only added fear and terror to that spread by the French Army. A courageous point of view, of course ill thought of by the almighty FLN in power, which Touita illustrated to more length and more clearly in his feature film on the same subject "Les Sacrifiés" made three years later. Which is also the reason why Touita, always prone to examine subjects disturbing for the party, could not shoot films in Algeria for years.
The only defect of this impressive insight into the life of Algerian immigrants in the late 50s may be its lack of clarity. Which first originates from the elocution of the actors, who express themselves in turns in Algerian Arabic and in accented French; and that does not help those who do not speak Arabic. The second problem concerns the historical background which remains vague and therefore confusing. Of course, it can very well be an artistic choice meant to best capture the bewilderment that prevails in the protagonists' minds. Well, quality or defect, it will be for you to decide!
Whatever the case may be, "Rue Tartarin" is an interesting piece of filming which goes off the beaten track and is accordingly worth seeing.