The Question

Denis plays the editor of a small leftist underground newspaper trying to help Algerians in their war against the French, but his actions catch up with him and he is picked up by French paratroopers, tortured, and imprisoned. He writes a book about his experiences and smuggles it out of jail. The book is published in France and rouses both public and government into action against the sadistic military torture system. One of the first French productions that looked honestly at the Algerian conflict. The troops are presented as neofascists who still feel the pain from French failures in Indochina (Vietnam). The torture sequences are handled with sensitivity and care...