La Trahison - French Film By Philippe Faucon: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR LA TRAHISON - FRENCH...

The Hyderabad Film Club is screening a French film, 'La Trahison' ('The Betrayal') at Sarathi Studios on the 17th of March, at 6:30pm.

'La Trahison' stars Vincent Martinez, Cyril Troley, Ahmed Berrhama, and was directed by Philippe Faucon. The film is 80 minutes long.

Based on an autobiographical account, the film is a chronicle of a French army unit's day-to-day maneuvers as it crosses a patch of half-deserted Algerian countryside in the summer of 1958, ferreting out fellaghas (FLN members). The unit leader is an idealistic but physically exhausted young lieutenant named Roque (Vincent Martinez).

4 of the unit members are harkis, Algerian Arabs serving in the French Army, and it is their dilemma that is the real subject of the film. Roque considers them French citizens, but he cannot guarantee their future or save them from the resentment of the locals who see them as traitors, from their fellow soldiers of white French origin who see them as wogs, or from Roque's superiors who see them as saboteurs waiting for their moment to strike.

Everyone, including Roque, is fed up with this conflict which has dragged on for so long. Meanwhile the unit is brutalizing locals, burning huts and resettling inhabitants in an increasingly rough manner; the harkis are stoned by Arab boys; and Algerian fellagha suspects are getting tortured and killed by other units or at headquarters.

Entry to the film screening is free for members of the Hyderabad Film Club. Please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy at 2373-0841 for further details.