B+Directed by David Oelhoffen Starring Viggo Mortensen and Reda Kateb Review by Jon Kissel |  |
David Oelhoffen’s bleak film set at the cusp of French-Algerian war begins in a one-room schoolhouse amidst the North African landscape. Viggo Mortensen’s Daru is teaching young Algerian children about French geography, a particular set of knowledge probably less pertinent than others for rural kids under France’s colonial yoke. Daru, an ostensibly charitable man still teaching from a Euro-centric standpoint, is revealed to be a man tentatively accepted by both sides but not fully at home in either. His European blood gives him a pass from the French masters, but his sympathies and preferences lie with the Algerians. Though he fought with both during WWII and maintains close multicultural friendships, the days of straddling the fence are coming to an end. Far From Men forces its characters to choose sides despite all evidence speaking to the impossibility of such a choice.
Daru’s rustic but satisfying routine is interrupted by a squad of French soldiers and their solitary Algerian prisoner. The prisoner, Mohamed (Reda Kateb), is on his way to the gallows for murder, but with the nascent rebellion, the soldiers are stretched too thin to play babysitter. Daru protests, but Algerian villagers looking to lynch Mohamed force his hand when they attack the school. What follows is a twisted road trip, where the unlikely pair encounters various parties as they prep for war, learning more about each other during their travels.
Oelhoffen, in adapting his film from a Camus short story, adds more depth than road trip films often contain. Each man has conflicting and complicated impulses, impulses that nicely mirror the motivations and possibilities presented to the grander sides in the coming conflict. Algeria is hardly depicted as the corrupted paradise that American films so often condescendingly stoop to in their portrayals of Native culture. It’s deeply tribal and in desperate need of a non-vengeance-based legal system, something the French could potentially help with if they weren’t so consumed with domination first and foremost. On Daru and Mohamed’s journey, they witness atrocities on both sides, the beginnings of a cycle of violence that’s going to go for years.
Mortensen and Kateb are a strong team, capable of taking the viewer on a guided tour of a devolving situation. Mortensen is obviously no slouch, and he’s exceptional in smaller moments of reflection, but the surprise is Kateb and the way he’s able to counter Mortensen while also standing toe-to-toe with him. They both inflect the proceedings with just enough humor to keep a fatalistic film from becoming a death march. Aided by his pair of lead actors, Oelhoffen crafts a strong two-fer laden with moral conundrums and the kind of impossible decisions insurgent warfare presents to its participants. B+
Oelhoffen, in adapting his film from a Camus short story, adds more depth than road trip films often contain. Each man has conflicting and complicated impulses, impulses that nicely mirror the motivations and possibilities presented to the grander sides in the coming conflict. Algeria is hardly depicted as the corrupted paradise that American films so often condescendingly stoop to in their portrayals of Native culture. It’s deeply tribal and in desperate need of a non-vengeance-based legal system, something the French could potentially help with if they weren’t so consumed with domination first and foremost. On Daru and Mohamed’s journey, they witness atrocities on both sides, the beginnings of a cycle of violence that’s going to go for years.
Mortensen and Kateb are a strong team, capable of taking the viewer on a guided tour of a devolving situation. Mortensen is obviously no slouch, and he’s exceptional in smaller moments of reflection, but the surprise is Kateb and the way he’s able to counter Mortensen while also standing toe-to-toe with him. They both inflect the proceedings with just enough humor to keep a fatalistic film from becoming a death march. Aided by his pair of lead actors, Oelhoffen crafts a strong two-fer laden with moral conundrums and the kind of impossible decisions insurgent warfare presents to its participants. B+
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