Synopsis
Georges Montero, the owner of an olive mill in Oran, is a "pied-noir" (Algerian-born Frenchman) who chose to remain in Algeria after its independence in 1962. More than 30 years later, Georges comes to France for the first time in his life for a cataract operation - just a civil war begins to take its bloody toll back home. Born in Franch colony, Montero is among those who always thought they could stand up to this young nation that rejected them. His surgeon, Tarek Timzert, ophthalmologist in a major Paris hospital, is a first-generation Franchman who has cut himself off from his Algerian roots. The contact between the "pied-noir" and the tradition-blind Arab forces Georges to make a decision between remaining in France or going home to Oran, at peace with himself but his own risk.
Credits
Director (1)
Actors (21)
Production and distribution (4)
- Executive Producer : Bloody Mary Production
- Co-production : France 2 Cinéma
- Film exports/foreign sales : The Bureau Sales
- French distribution : Polygram
Full credits (15)
- Executive Producer : Didier Haudepin
- Assistant director : Marianne Fricheau
- Sound recordists : Xavier Griette, Dominique Vieillard
- Screenwriters : Dominique Cabrera, Louis Mathieu de Vienne
- Director of photography : Hélène Louvart
- Production Manager : Jean-Luc Roze
- Press Attaché (film) : Laurette Monconduit
- Editor : Sophie Brunet
- Continuity supervisor : Edmée Doroszlai
- Production Designer : Michel Vandestien
- Music Composer : Béatrice Thiriet
- Costume designer : Nathalie Raoul
- Sound Mixer : Dominique Gaborieau
- Still Photographer : Dunnara Méas
- Location Manager : Jean-Christophe Cardineau
Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Drama
- Themes : Exile, Family
- Production language : French
- Production country : France (100.0%)
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
- Nationality : 100% French (France)
- Production year : 1996
- French release : 21/05/1997
- Runtime : 1 h 29 min
- Current status : Released
- Visa number : 88.899
- Visa issue date : 30/04/1997
- Approval : Yes
- Production formats : 35mm
- Color type : Color
- Aspect ratio : 1.85
- Audio format : Dolby SR
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International releases
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News & awards
Selections (3)
About
I used the hand-held camera because I wanted to get closer to things and people, to be physically in their midst, to breath and move with the characters...The hand-held camera skipping among them was a sort of crystallization of the film's basic theme : the apprenticeship of uncertainty - Georges (the fiftyish "pied-noir") thinks he's living in a certain situation in Algeria, sure of what he wants and owns, but that's not the case. In the end, he's not even sure if he's going to go back to Algeria. The same goes for Tarek, the young surgeon of Arab origin. He thinks he's found a certain equilibrium and the fact of meeting Georges, the "pied-noir", an ageing franch-man born in Algeria who's "more Algerian than he is", throws him off balance. The hand-held camera mirrors the movements of someone seeking his way... (Dominique Cabrera)