Post by pim on Sept 3, 2015 22:37:28 GMT 10
I saw it today. It's part of the French Film Festival which is in Adelaide right now. It's set in Algeria 1954 during the insurgency that by the end of the 1950s had led to full scale war, the fall of the 4th Republic in France and the beginning of the Presidency of Charles de Gaulle who ended the Algerian Unpleasantness by granting full independence to the Algerians resulting in a mutiny of large sections of the French armed forces, the compulsory deportation from Algeria of millions of "pieds noirs" who were non-Arabs and therefore "French" (in a manner of speaking) and the appearance of the first example of modern urban terrorism, the OAS or Organisation de l'Armée Secrète, which needs no translation.
But all of that was in the future. The defeat of the French in Indochina at Dien Bien Phu had emboldened the resistance to the French in the Maghreb, particularly in Algeria, and by 1954 the term "mujahideen" was introduced to the West.
The movie is based on a short story by Albert Camus (my favourite atheist) called "L'Hôte" in the original French and "The Guest" in English translation. You'll find it in the collection of Camus short stories called "Exile and the Kingdom". Camus originally wrote it in 1957 as the Algerian War was really hotting up. Camus was himself a "pied noir", a French Algerian, so this was very personal to him. The short story is set in the Atlas Mountains in a remote part of the country. The main character, Daru, is a primary school teacher in a one-teacher school and his pupils are from the local Arab community. Naturally, the kids are taught in French and their geography lessons are all about France rather than Algeria. That should come as no surprise to us Australians. I was also at primary school in the 1950s and the curriculum was heavy on things British and light on things Australian. One day a policeman called Baducci turns up at Daru's remote little school with an Arab prisoner. Balducci's orders are to leave the prisoner with Daru and for Daru to escort the prisoner to the next little town, Tinguit, there to hand him over for trial. They'll have to go on foot over rugged terrain with the threat of the mujahideen ever present.
I won't go any further except to say that having read "The Guest" I find that the movie "Far From Men" strays so far from the short story it's supposed to be based on that in effect they've created a different story. Still, I thought in its scenery, its camera work, its plot and character development and in the way the movie explored how refugees are created, the movie is an important one for today.
See it.
But all of that was in the future. The defeat of the French in Indochina at Dien Bien Phu had emboldened the resistance to the French in the Maghreb, particularly in Algeria, and by 1954 the term "mujahideen" was introduced to the West.
The movie is based on a short story by Albert Camus (my favourite atheist) called "L'Hôte" in the original French and "The Guest" in English translation. You'll find it in the collection of Camus short stories called "Exile and the Kingdom". Camus originally wrote it in 1957 as the Algerian War was really hotting up. Camus was himself a "pied noir", a French Algerian, so this was very personal to him. The short story is set in the Atlas Mountains in a remote part of the country. The main character, Daru, is a primary school teacher in a one-teacher school and his pupils are from the local Arab community. Naturally, the kids are taught in French and their geography lessons are all about France rather than Algeria. That should come as no surprise to us Australians. I was also at primary school in the 1950s and the curriculum was heavy on things British and light on things Australian. One day a policeman called Baducci turns up at Daru's remote little school with an Arab prisoner. Balducci's orders are to leave the prisoner with Daru and for Daru to escort the prisoner to the next little town, Tinguit, there to hand him over for trial. They'll have to go on foot over rugged terrain with the threat of the mujahideen ever present.
I won't go any further except to say that having read "The Guest" I find that the movie "Far From Men" strays so far from the short story it's supposed to be based on that in effect they've created a different story. Still, I thought in its scenery, its camera work, its plot and character development and in the way the movie explored how refugees are created, the movie is an important one for today.
See it.