Cinema
Les Hors-la-loi
Tewfik Farès · 1969
Synopsis
The Aurès, in the late forties. The colonial administration sets its machinery in place, and the code of honour is not easily exchanged for the Napoleonic code. Slimane, a former soldier whom the army refused permission to go and see his dying father, is handed over to the authorities by his village's caïd. In prison, he meets two other young men; they escape together, and Slimane takes the road to the caïd's house.
Context
The film was shot in 1968 for the national office of cinematographic trade and industry, which then produced all of the country's cinema, by a man who came from newsreel journalism and had never directed a work of fiction. He chose the western, which he held to be the most properly cinematic genre, and said he had wanted to present the colonial condition as it is lived, not as it is discussed. Georges Moustaki wrote the music. Two running times circulate, one hundred and seven minutes and ninety-five. France discovered it only in December 1976, and it is now among the fifteen Algerian titles restored and digitised.
Who it is for
In colour, subtitled, easy to follow: it is a western, with chases, ambushes and revenge. It helps to know that the revolt arises from a matter of honour and not from a political programme.
Prizes and reception
The first Algerian feature film in colour, and the only fiction film its author made for the big screen. Critics reproached it for basing the revolt on vengeance.