The Unvanquished

Alain Cavalier's 1964 French film is set in the last period of the Algerian War and follows Thomas, a deserter from the Foreign Legion, on the run. He frees Dominique, a lawyer taken hostage by a clandestine organisation, but this is not heroism, only an attempt to get out of the corner he is in. Because it showed the war's reflection inside France directly, the film ran into interference on release; the subject was highly sensitive at the time. Alain Delon sets aside his star image here to play an uncertain, exhausted man. Cavalier's plain telling leaves action almost entirely outside. The story is built on uncertainty and the final section surprises with its harshness. Who it's for: viewers interested in the French new wave and films about the Algerian War. Who it's not for: anyone wanting action, or who would rather not watch without the historical context.