Mr. Rachid, librarian, shocked and disappointed by his recent transfer, talks about the day and the night that preceded the tragic death of one of his colleagues.
In one of the tribes of the Algerian Sahara, everyone awaits the arrival of the hero who will defend the rights of the poor. A man decides one day to put the mark of the "hero" on his newborn son and the whole tribe celebrates the arrival of this eagerly awaited messiah who came to save them. This false hero then grows up by assuming his role of savior. Filled with cynicism, he crosses the countryside and has a number of adventures.
This black-and-white film – the first road movie of Algerian cinema – presents one of the most readily apparent, though subtle, transformations of the daily life of the people of Algeria brought about by the ordeal of French occupation and the war of liberation. With military repression in full force, a peasant woman finds herself alone in her house in the mountains when her only son is taken away by French soldiers soon after her husband is killed in a raid. One day, on seeing a dead chicken, which she considers a bad omen, she decides to leave home, and sets off on a tiring journey through the mountains. With a pair of chickens in tow, she moves from one detention camp to the next in a desperate search for her missing son. The film was inspired by events experienced by the family of its director.
1957년 10월 어느 새벽, 알제리 민족 해방 전선(Font de Libration Nationale, FNL) 소속의 나이 든 반군 한 명이 프랑스 군인들의 고문을 견디다 못해 마지막 남은 지도자 알리의 은신처를 누설하고 만다. 은신처를 포위한 프랑스군은 당장이라도 폭파할 태세이다. 오직 해방을 목표로 투쟁해 온 지도자 알리는 생사의 갈림길에서 상념에 잠긴 채 치열했던 지난 3년을 회상한다...
1954년에서 1962년 사이, 9년간 프랑스의 식민 통치에 대항한 FNL의 무장 독립 투쟁과 프랑스군의 정치적 폭력 행위 등을 다큐멘터리 형식으로 재구성한 영화다.
