The thin blurry line between documentary and fiction

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2011)

This is one of the best war films ever. You'll feel watching a documentary, that grainy look is impressively real and it enhances the overall visual experience. You'll feel you're watching footage from the Algerian war and not a movie, this is enhanced by the acting and how the camera becomes almost invisible (only a great director can make this, thank you Pontecorvo) and it's a way to understand the people and the culture behind Algerians after 9/11, where everyone coming from that side of the world, were called "terrorists" without a logical reason.
We follow Ali La Pointe while he tries to survive in the streets of Paris and how he becomes a guerrilla leader who fought for the independence of the Algerians from the French. What makes this movie unique is that it humanizes the "bad guys", they're not a monolithic group, they have different reasons to fight and this is how you as the audience start to think about their reasons to do these despicable acts.
There's a scene involving a woman on a mission: to put a bomb in a cafeteria full of innocent people, including children, that will make you think about a lot of things and probably would make you think that maybe this girl with the bomb has her own reasons, her own goals even if she's doing something horrible and maybe this is the only way she has to achieve her goals.
A though provoking movie. A great family flick. Forget The Muppets this holiday season and bring the pop corns, watch this movie with your kids. It's like watching a dirty special on the History Channel but 10 times better.
Try to find the Criterion Collection edition in Blu-ray. The sound and picture quality is as good as it gets!