How far can you go to justify your means? What are the right things in war? How to contain a revolution? are just few of the themes of this brilliant art work.

Rating: 10/10 (21 August 2013)

Simply Brilliant is how I would describe this movie. Done in black-and-white, at a break-a- neck pace, it unravels the intense, life changing confrontation of the Muslim Algiers, against the French occupancy. Filmed in a documentary style, it brings us in the midst of the conflict, and developing of a revolution, with mind bugling intimacy, and as every genius work of Art it asks more questions, than gives answers.
The terrorist that we deal with nowadays, are caricatured into uneducated, dirty desert monkeys, dying not for freedom but for a chance to get some pussy in heaven, but one forgets is that it's quite the opposite. That the people that stand behind it all, are highly intelligent, well organized, extremely well educated and idealistic. And in the case of this movie, they are freedom fighters. Please don't misconstrued this as a justification for terrorism, just don't make a mistake of simplifying things to some absurd notion that its a number of virgins in heaven that motivates these people. Perhaps at the lowest ranks, it what gets people going, but the higher ups are motivated by something completely different. Even in case of world tr center, it was done rather symbolic, (people forget that the same thing is done in "Fight Club" with the only difference that there are no people in the building), to show how that place created unfair trade treaties all the time, and it's the cause of poverty in many countries. A perfect example would be China, with whom once the trading was allowed, their economy boomed. (by the way all this came to me after I watched this movie, I am not that much of a political person )))).
Mostly important with every step of the way, with incredible clarity, tension and on-the- edge-of-your-seat intensity, this film explains the inner motivation of both the French occupancy, and the soldiers that come to defend it, and the opposition that eventually leads to revolution and independence of Algiers. All character's actions, no matter how heroic or horrific are understood, sympathized and relived by the viewer, with often unexpected personal discoveries.