'Reformed Colonel' Raoul Duplan is found dead in Paris, a couple of decades after Algeria's struggle for independence was won from France. Assigned to investigate, Lieutenant Galois receives the diary of Lieutenent Guy Rossi, who served under Duplan in Algeria in 1956, and has been reported as MIA since 1957. The revelations in Rossi's diary far surpass Duplan's actions in Algeria, and give insight on how dirty Algeria's War for Independence really was.
Acting
Olivier Gourmet's dead eyes hiding decades of calculated evil.
Writing
Rossi's diary entries that weaponize bureaucratic language.
Direction
Herbiet's cold formalism mirroring military compartmentalization.
Director
Laurent Herbiet
Olivier Gourmet
Le colonel Raoul Duplan
Robinson Stévenin
Le lieutenant Guy Rossi
Cécile de France
Le lieutenant Galois
Charles Aznavour
le père Rossi
Bruno Solo
Le commandant Reidacher
Éric Caravaca
René Acsensio
Guillaume Gallienne
Le sous-préfet
Georges Siatidis
Le capitaine Roger
Thierry Hancisse
Le commissaire Quitard
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during France's 2005 memory law debates criminalizing colonialism denial — the film's timing was politically explosive.
Charles Aznavour, playing Rossi's father, was himself a child of Armenian genocide survivors — his casting adds layers of inherited trauma.
BE
FR
