It isn’t as simple as that naturally ….. it all
happens during WW2 and life could have stopped short for Younes when the Nazis
pick him up on the street (actually it could have been the French Gendarmeries
but during the Occupation they were practically the same anyway). To save his own neck he agrees to spy on the
inner circle at the Mosque where the Clerics are suspected are providing Jews
with false identity papers to escape detection.
However at the Mosque he meets Salim Halali a young
Arab-Andalusian singer who’s a rising star and the two young men become fast friends. Then he discovers his new pal is Jewish and in grave danger of being
discovered. Younes's clumsy attempts at spying
attracts the attention of Si Kaddour Bem Chabrit a senior cleric who then uses
the young men to act as a go-between him and the Authorities who are rapidly
closing in. He slips up and now no longer working for the
Police/Nazis he is himself in danger and this encourages the previously apolitical Younes
to get a conscience and join the Resistance as a Freedom Fighter.
Oh yes, there’s a love interest too. Not that you would have ever thought that a mosque
would be a good place to meet a pretty woman, but this is exactly what Younes
does. Actually Leila is much more than
that as he soon discovers that she is a leading figure in the Algerian Freedom Movement.
It all makes for an intriguing well-constructed wartime
thriller, which may not have you clinging to your seat in terror, but will
still hold you interest fast until the end.
And if that is not enough to entice you to see this,
then I should add that Younes is played by Tahar Rahim the star of ‘A Prophet’ (still
one of my favorite movie of the last two years) and Bem Chambrit is played by
Michael Lonsdale ('Of Gods And Men'). Oh,
yes it’s all based on a true story too.
★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★
