Les Harkis

In the hinterland of Algeria, two young men join the French army. They were promised a bonus and a possible move to France if they swore loyalty to their colonial masters. The price: to fight their own countrymen who have joined the National Liberation Front (FLN), disparagingly called Fallagha (bandits) in Arabic. The Algerian troops under French command are called Harkis, and most of the soldiers do not speak French. On the orders of a lieutenant, they infiltrate the Fallagha, torturing and killing them. As long as they saw themselves on the winning side, they thought they were safe; they never dreamed that the colonization of their country would end. But when this is about to happen at the end of the war, the Harkis are pilloried as traitors in the eyes of their countrymen. The French government has no intention of keeping its promise to protect the recruited soldiers; leaving them behind in Algeria is so much easier than integrating them into France.