Far from Men

1954, Algeria. Daru teaches at a small school in the mountains; he served in the French army, is of Spanish descent and was born in Algeria. The gendarmerie gives him a task: to take a man called Mohamed, who has killed his cousin, to the town where he will be tried. Daru does not want it. The two set out together. The war of independence has just begun and there are French patrols and rebels alike in the hills. David Oelhoffen writes and directs. Viggo Mortensen plays Daru and Reda Kateb plays Mohamed. The source is Albert Camus's story The Guest; Camus was a Frenchman born in Algeria and the story is about exactly that double position. The subject is being forced to choose a side. Daru counts as neither French nor Algerian; neither side takes him for one of theirs and the narrative finds him no place anywhere. Why Mohamed wants to be tried is the best conceived part and rests on a reason outside the logic of revenge. The music is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. It was shot in the Atlas mountains; the landscape is wide and empty and sets the tone. It screened at the 2014 Venice film festival. Who it is for: viewers who like historical drama shot in the shape of a western, and Camus adaptations. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and some scenes are incomplete without the political context.