Home Front

The war – in this case, France's war in Algeria – never ends. Partly because the perpetrators can’t find a way to talk about it. But this film finds a form for the unspeakable!

It’s Solange's sixtieth birthday. Her brother Bernard, played by Gérard Depardieu, shows up. The other guests are wary of the unpredictable man. The situation escalates, resulting in a racist incident that triggers the protagonists’ memories of an important chapter in their lives: France’s colonial war in North Africa. This seems to be the reason for how Bernard became who he is. The different voices and perspectives are juxtaposed in an impressive narrative strategy. Each of them remains alone, nobody talks to one another. Past and present, as well as big and small history, are artfully intertwined. But of the greatest cruelties that people inflict on one another, even the film cannot speak. In its refusal to pull punches, however, that’s precisely what’s worth seeing.

Director

Trailer