Hors La Loi (Out Of The Law) - 2010

The first time I came across this movie was during the 2011 Oscars when it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. As a follower of the various Independence Movements that changed the world in the post-WWII era, I put the movie on my long list of movies-to-watch-before-I-Die. Well, my chance to watch it finally came about today. Here's a short synopsis, so I don't spoil it all for you, as well as some criticism I hope you can respond to :)

Spanning from 1925 to 1962, the movie tells the story of an Algerian family who have been forced off their land in rural Algeria, and end up residing in Setif in the center of the country. As a result of the horrendous 1945 Setif Massacre, the family dissolves with the shooting of the father and his two daughters by French forces, the forced enlisting of Messaoud, who is shipped off to Indochina a few years later, and the imprisonment of Abdelkader in France. The nucleus of the family remains with the mother and the youngest child Said. The latter avenges the ill-fate of the family by murdering the Qaid, who initially forced them off their land, and fleeing with his reluctant mother to Nanterre, a suburb of Paris.

There, Said refuses to work at the Renault auto-mobile manufacturing company and opts to work on Paris streets as a pimp. Aware of this shame, his mother refuses to take any dirty money from him. The remnants of the family finally re-unite when Abdelkader, after receiving liberation movement training in prison, and Messaoud, who was captured and imprisoned by the Vietnamese in Indo-Chiina, find their way to the Nanterre ghetto. The re-union pumps more blood into the movie, as we follow the three brothers, each one intent on pursuing the resistance their own way, to the tragic ending you would expect from a movie belonging to this genre.

Now first things first, I have to take my hat off to the Director Rachid Bouchareb, whom you may have already heard of for his 2006 movie Indigènes, known in English as Days of Glory. Technically and aesthetically, the movie deserves the praise it has garnered worldwide. The special effects, detailed depictions, and the MAIN historical accuracies should all be praised. The fact that the three protagonists worked with Bouchareb in his earlier production will have no doubt played a part in the apparent homogeneity of the characters and the smoothness of the storyline.

I also thought the incidents interwoven into the plot sparked a few forgotten events in French-Algerian history. The Setif massacre is one of those that fell in that category. What made it more so relevant was France's recent decision to punish anyone who denied the presumably Turkish-led Armenian genocide after WWI. I do not wish to go into the accuracies of that conflict, but I thought this last stance by France was quite bold after I saw and researched some of the atrocities conducted in Setif and other cities.

Other forgotten events were the bickering of the FLN and the MNA for Algerian Liberation bragging rights. I was surprised by the degree of animosity between these two resistance entities. You would usually assume that a degree of "competitive" unity might exist within any country during independence struggles against a colonial power, but not to the extent of the hostile exchanges depicted in the movie.

Bouchareb's artistic touch and enticing heroic plot will have surely got movie-goers to hit cinemas; however, I thought the movie heavily focused on the heroism of the three characters. The underground endeavour to recruit people for the FLN and the seriousness with which Abdelkader goes about with his responsibilities seemed to be a bit too much for me to stomach. I understand the heroism may have served to emotionally involve the viewer in a catharsis-like manner during the tragic ending. If that is the case, I must say the movie may succeed in causing a tear to flow down a cheek or two. Yet, I believe the exaggerated degree of that same heroism gave way to a Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America-like setting, especially when the violence and shooting heavily kicked in. At certain points, it seemed like it revolved around a Manhattan/Algerian mob murdering and gunning down people at will for neighbourhood supremacy.

Additionally, I felt there were a few shortcomings/gaps in the movie that I would not wish to dwell on much so I don't give a negative impression of a film I thoroughly enjoyed. Of these, I may mention that I felt the movie hit a slow gear towards the middle, especially that the beginning and end were event-packed and faster. I also thought it would have been harder to smuggle trucks of arms and ammo from Germany through Belgium to end up at Valenciennes, even in those days. Finally, I think I would have liked Bouchareb to show us the mother and Messaoud's wife in the end. I believe that would have been the knock-out blow to a mighty fine and tragic adaptation of a fictional family's troubles abroad during that courageous Algerian Independence period!

I hear Bouchareb is working on a sequel that would complete the trilogy. I think it's for 2014. In the meantime, I say two thumbs up for Bouchareb, Zem, Bouajila, and Debbouze and urge you to watch the movie!!!