Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès

original title:
Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès
other titles:
To Be Twenty in the Aures, (Mit zwanzig Jahren in den Aures)
country / year of production:
France / 1972
original length:
100 min. , color
premiere:
May 1972, Cannes Film Festival
genre:
melodrama
based on:
director:
René Vautier
film script:
René Vautier
producer:
cinematographer:
Pierre Clément
editor:
Nedjma Scialom
composer:
cast (role):
Alexandre Arcady (Noël ) , Hamid Djellouli (Youssef) , Philippe Léotard (Le lieutenant) , Jacques Canselier (Coco ) , Jean-Michel Ribes (Le curé) , Alexandre Arcady , Hamid Djellouli , Philippe Léotard , Jacques Canselier , Jean-Michel Ribes
more:
plot synopsis:
In spring 1961 a French commando is send out to destroy a medical supply camp of the Algerian Liberation Movement. With the exception of commander Perrin all of the soldiers had been conscripted from Britanny and are all opposed to the war. At first its only the harsh conditions of the desert that the men have to deal with. But soon enough they have to fight and kill in order not get killed themselves. The longer they are exposed to the terror snd cruelity of the fighting, the more these formerly peace-loving men turn into unscrupulous killing machines. When an Algerian FLN prisoner is bound to a radio mast in the torrid heat the day before his execution, one of the soldiers, Noel, decides to end this humiliation and to leave Perrin`s inhumane command behind. He frees the captive and the two escape.
keywords:
desert , prisoners of war , escape , execution
war:
Algerian War for Independence (1954-1962)
literature:
Alain-Gérard Slama. La guerre d'Algérie: Histoire d'une déchirure. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
remarks:
Director Vautier, Breton and communist, had been looking for a story of the Algerian Civil War for a while; a war he always had considered wrong. Finally, the memories of a war veteran that led him to the idea: "A young soldier is ordered to guard an Algerian prisoner who will be excecuted the next day. The soldier changes sides and the two escape to the rebels".
But Vautier did not intend to make a film about somebody exceptional. Instead his aim was to portray those three million conscripted men, reservists and family fathers who did things in Algeria they never would have thought possible.
Vaultier did 500 interviews with veterans. Out of 680 hours of footage he developed a story board. It was important to him that every situation described was confirmed by at least four other people.
For the Breton commando Vautier hired two theatre groups. As the script did not assign the actors with fixed roles, they had a plenty of opportunities to improvise and participated in developing the scenes - always keeping in mind that everything had to accord to the interviews.

At the 1972 film festival in Cannes this scandalous film was demostratively awarded to the Prize of the International Film Critique, the FIPRESCI Prize.
availability: