L'assaut

20.13 is a verset of The Bible (Genesis) condemning homosexuality. In rudimentary barracks near the Mozambique border with Tanzania, one more episode takes place of the colonial war between the Portuguese army and Frelimo (the Mozambican liberation freedom fighters movement). Simultaneously we watch the development of a story of murder, love and homosexuality among some of the personnel in there at Christmas time in some year of the sixties of last century thus inserting some kind of a detective story in the plot. This is quite unbelievable in that atmosphere since anyone who lived there at the time or took direct or indirect notice of the facts knows that was unlikely as far as I know. In the first place it is highly doubtful that the presence of women -- even as wives of officers -- was allowed in such barracks in a war zone. The movie reveals some dramatic weakness in the way the screen-play is treated which touches commonplace factuality. The characters are not shaped with enough psychological depth. The only thing that saves the quality of the movie a little is the realism of some of the fighting action scenes.