{"id":1702,"date":"2010-10-05T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=1702"},"modified":"2017-10-18T12:41:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T10:41:42","slug":"after-indigenes-french-oh-la-la-about-hors-la-loi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/after-indigenes-french-oh-la-la-about-hors-la-loi\/","title":{"rendered":"After &#8220;INDIG\u00c8NES&#8221;: French &#8220;Oh-la-la&#8221; about &#8220;HORS-LA-LOI&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/images.allocine.fr\/r_760_x\/b_1_cfd7e1\/medias\/nmedia\/18\/77\/70\/18\/19452007.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"287\" height=\"383\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ve already seen him in <strong><em>&#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Le Fabuleux Destin d&#8217;Am\u00e9lie Poulain<\/span>.&#8221; <\/em><\/strong>You\u00a0may have also seen him in <em>&#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Indig\u00e8nes<\/strong><\/span>&#8221; <\/em>(&#8220;<strong>Days of Glory<\/strong>&#8221; in English)<strong>,<\/strong> by French Algerian movie director<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong> Rachid Bouchareb<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>His name is <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Djamel Debbouze<\/strong><\/span>, and he&#8217;s now\u00a0back in the sequel to <strong><em>&#8220;Indig\u00e8nes<\/em>&#8220;<\/strong>, directed by the same Bouchareb. The movie is called <em>&#8220;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Hors-la-Loi<\/strong><\/span><\/em>&#8221; in French, and &#8220;<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Outside the Law<\/strong><\/span>&#8221; in English.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\nIn the\u00a0the first movie,\u00a0<em>&#8220;<strong>Indig\u00e8nes<\/strong>&#8220;,<\/em> we follow the story of <strong>Algerian<\/strong> and <strong>Moroccan<\/strong> soldiers who, despite having their home countries living under extremely harsh <strong>French occupation<\/strong>,\u00a0rush\u00a0nevertheless to fight\u00a0in<strong> World War II <\/strong>to help deliver\u00a0<strong>France<\/strong> from the\u00a0clutches of <strong>Nazi Germany.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">When it was released, back in\u00a0<strong>2006, &#8220;<em><strong>Indig\u00e8nes<\/strong><\/em>&#8221;\u00a0<\/strong>did not trigger any major\u00a0<strong><em>pol\u00e9mique<\/em><\/strong> (controversy.) The <strong>2010<\/strong> sequel <strong><em>&#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Hors-la-loi<\/span><\/em><\/strong>&#8220;, however, managed to\u00a0provoke the unlikely scene of\u00a0heated demonstrations\u00a0held at the very\u00a0doorsteps of\u00a0the <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Festival de Cannes<\/strong><\/span>!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Of course, the Festival organizers,\u00a0whose budget -we are told- is still reeling from\u00a0<strong><em>la crise financi\u00e8re <\/em><\/strong>(the financial crisis), did not have much to complain about the\u00a0unexpected glare of\u00a0<strong><em>publicit\u00e9<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hors la loi de Rachid Boucharef Bande annonce\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mi4FnkJ0wOI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong> The 2010 French-Algerian film &#8220;<em>Hors-la-loi<\/em>&#8221; (&#8220;Outside of the Law&#8221;)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Make no mistake about it, although\u00a0its events\u00a0are set in the final days of\u00a0the <strong>Second World War<\/strong> and its immediate aftermath, this movie\u00a0is no <strong>Quentin Tarantino <em>\u00e0-la-<\/em>&#8220;Inglorious Basterds<\/strong>.<strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The plot of &#8220;<strong><em>Hors-la-loi<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; takes place in <strong>1945<\/strong>,\u00a0immediately when <strong><em>la <em>Deuxi\u00e8me <\/em>Guerre Mondiale <\/em><\/strong>(WWII) came to a long-overdue end.<\/p>\n<p>Hundred\u00a0thousands of Algerians, whose country had been illegally\u00a0occupied by France since <strong>1830<\/strong>, went in the streets to celebrate the end of the war.<\/p>\n<p>Among the demonstrators were Algerian soldiers enlisted in the French army, whose participation in the war proved instrumental in the\u00a0liberation of\u00a0France\u00a0from the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>The demonstrations were mainly held in the cities of <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Setif<\/strong><\/span>, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Constantine<\/strong><\/span>, and <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Skikda. <\/strong><\/span>People celebrated\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>V-Day<\/strong><\/span> (&#8220;Victory Day&#8221;, that is), waved\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Algerian flags<\/strong><\/span>, and chanted demands ranging from\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>le droit de l&#8217;autod\u00e9termination <\/em><\/strong><\/span>(self-determination right) to\u00a0the full and\u00a0immediate\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>independence<\/strong><\/span> of Algeria.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Algerie - 8 mai 1945 - Jeudi 23 septembre 2010 \u00e0 23h40 sur France 2\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FwiMHz_MyfA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The answer of\u00a0<strong>*not all*<\/strong>, but many armed\u00a0&#8220;<em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>pieds noirs<\/strong><\/span>&#8221; <\/em>(literally called the &#8220;<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Black Feet<\/strong><\/span>&#8220;), who were often backed by European French soldiers,\u00a0was a\u00a0swift and\u00a0ruthless bloody repression.<\/p>\n<p>In the matter of only a few days after <strong>May 8th, 1945<\/strong>, thousands\u00a0of Algerians were to be massacred in a horrible bloodbath.<\/p>\n<p>Their crime?<\/p>\n<p>Daring to wave a different flag than the <em><strong>tricolore<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to understand that many French people, intellectuals and ordinary citizens, including a great number of <strong><em>pieds noirs<\/em><\/strong> themselves,\u00a0were truly\u00a0outraged by these horrific large-scale massacres committed against the native population.<\/p>\n<p>The main problem was that France&#8217;s public opinion remained oblivious to what was happening in its so-called &#8220;<em><strong>outre-mer<\/strong>&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>(overseas) colony.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jK3YZ_DORT8\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jK3YZ_DORT8<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>French Public Television &#8220;France 2&#8221; documentary about the May 8th 1945 massacres in Algeria, which\u00a0marked the true beginning of\u00a0<em>la<\/em> <em>Guerre d&#8217;Alg\u00e9rie <\/em>(The Algerian War), sparked in November 1st, 1954.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Prophetically, some of the murdering leaders of <em>les pieds noirs <\/em>are known to have said: &#8220;<em>On est tranquiles pour dix ans<\/em>&#8221; (&#8220;We got nothing to be worried about for the next ten years&#8221;)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now, who are the &#8220;<strong><em>pieds noirs<\/em><\/strong>&#8220;, you may ask<strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;<strong><em>pieds noirs<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; is the name of French and European settlers who lived in Algeria as &#8220;supercitizens&#8221; of some sorts, enjoying countless &#8220;legal&#8221; privileges, mainly\u00a0tailored to their own special interests,\u00a0while the original\u00a0owners of the land, the so-called <em>&#8220;<strong>indig\u00e8nes<\/strong>&#8220;,<\/em> were denied the most basic human\u00a0rights,\u00a0be it the\u00a0right to\u00a0vote, or simply elementary education.<\/p>\n<p>Again, it would be wrong to\u00a0consider that all the &#8220;<strong><em>pieds noirs<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; were coldblooded murderes. But a great deal of them were in fact growing\u00a0desperate, and were\u00a0<strong><em>pr\u00eats \u00e0 tout<\/em><\/strong> (ready to do anything) to keep alive &#8220;<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>l&#8217;Alg\u00e9rie fran\u00e7aise<\/em><\/strong><\/span>&#8221; (&#8220;French Algeria&#8221;), and with it their illicitly-acquired possessions and\u00a0privileged life-style, even at the expense of the interests and the very lives of the so-called\u00a0&#8220;<strong><em>indig\u00e8nes<\/em><\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some may observe that this situation sounds a lot like the\u00a0&#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Apartheid<\/strong><\/span>&#8221; system set in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>l&#8217;Afrique du Sud <\/em><\/strong><\/span>(South Africa.)<strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, like a famous American\u00a0baseball player once said: &#8220;<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>It&#8217;s <em>d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em> all over again<\/strong><\/span>&#8220;!<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, it was an apartheid&#8212;an apartheid in North Africa, rather than South Africa.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>La<\/strong><\/em> <em><strong>Guerre d&#8217;Alg\u00e9rie<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>(The Algerian War), which is an important and painful\u00a0chapter of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>l&#8217;histoire de France<\/strong><\/em><\/span> (French History),\u00a0is in fact\u00a0nothing more than\u00a0<strong><em>un \u00e9pisode <\/em><\/strong>of an age-old\u00a0struggle in the history of humanity. A struggle waged by\u00a0oppressed natives against foreign occupiers, wherever they happened to\u00a0live <strong><em>sur la plan\u00e8te <\/em><\/strong>(on the planet): From the earliest\u00a0days of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>l&#8217;Empire\u00a0Perse <\/em><\/strong><\/span>(the Persian Empire)<strong>,<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>l&#8217;Empire Romain <\/strong><\/em><\/span>(the Roman Empire), to <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>les Croisades<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>(the Crusades), all the way up to the emergence of \u00a0<em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>l&#8217;Empire\u00a0Britanique<\/strong><\/span><\/em>,\u00a0&#8220;<strong><em>sur lequel le soleil ne se couche<\/em> <em>jamais<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; (&#8220;upon which the sun never sets.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s virtually the same<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong> <em>leitmotiv<\/em><\/strong><\/span>, or\u00a0the same historical\u00a0pattern, if you will.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachid Bouchareb r\u00e9pond aux critiques\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vy1PF7lKpzc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong> &#8220;Hors-la-loi&#8221;\u00a0director Rachid Bouchareb: &#8220;I only want to open a debate&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Pour revenir au film\u00a0qui nous int\u00e9resse <\/em><\/strong>(to get back to the movie of interest to us), here is what a featured\u00a0<strong>IMDB.com<\/strong> reviewer had to say, after watching the movie:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>I was afraid of a good Arabs vs bad French people scheme. And I was actually pleased to see that it was not the case. Every one is grey, no white people, not dark either. Every one fights for his own convictions.<\/em><\/strong><\/span>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>C&#8217;est vrai<\/em><\/strong> (It&#8217;s true.)\u00a0No single people or nation on Earth has the monopoly of <strong><em>le bien <\/em><\/strong>(the good) or <strong><em>le mal <\/em><\/strong>(evil.) All of us\u00a0should enjoy the right to &#8220;fight for\u00a0our own convictions&#8221;, as the IMDB reviewer puts it.<\/p>\n<p>But then again, what kind of &#8220;convictions&#8221; are these, exactly<strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If these &#8220;convictions&#8221; are meant to indefinitely\u00a0maintain the oppression of native people under a harsh colonialist rule, and if these very native people decide one day\u00a0that, as the common French expression goes,\u00a0<strong><em>trop c&#8217;est trop <\/em><\/strong>(enough is enough), then no matter what &#8220;legal system&#8221; is conveniently concocted to perpetuate the reigning colonial\u00a0<strong><em>status quo<\/em><\/strong>, at the end of the day, the natives\u00a0are the last ones to be viewed as &#8220;<strong>outside of law.<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>En d&#8217;autres termes <\/em><\/strong>(in other words): Whoever is a\u00a0<strong>colonialist\u00a0<\/strong>is\u00a0<strong><em>de\u00a0facto<\/em><\/strong> the &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>hors-la-loi<\/strong><\/em><\/span>&#8220;!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"263\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2010\/10\/19452007-263x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2010\/10\/19452007-263x350.jpg 263w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2010\/10\/19452007.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><p>You&#8217;ve already seen him in &#8220;Le Fabuleux Destin d&#8217;Am\u00e9lie Poulain.&#8221; You\u00a0may have also seen him in &#8220;Indig\u00e8nes&#8221; (&#8220;Days of Glory&#8221; in English), by French Algerian movie director Rachid Bouchareb. His name is Djamel Debbouze, and he&#8217;s now\u00a0back in the sequel to &#8220;Indig\u00e8nes&#8220;, directed by the same Bouchareb. The movie is called &#8220;Hors-la-Loi&#8221; in French, and&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/after-indigenes-french-oh-la-la-about-hors-la-loi\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":23685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[11714,9553,11718,11719,11716,8799,11706,11704,11711,11703,11702,484,8812,11713,11715,11708,11710,11709,11717,11707,10261,559,11705,11712],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-8-mai-1945","tag-algeria","tag-algerie-francaise","tag-apartheid","tag-black-feet","tag-colonialism","tag-days-of-glory","tag-djamel-debbouze","tag-festival-de-cannes","tag-hors-la-loi","tag-indigenes","tag-inglorious-basterds","tag-le-fabuleux-destin-damelie-poulain","tag-massacres-of-setif","tag-may-8th-1945","tag-morocco","tag-nazi-germany","tag-nazis","tag-outre-mer-colony","tag-outside-of-the-law","tag-pieds-noirs","tag-quentin-tarantino","tag-rachid-bouchareb","tag-setif"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28032,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions\/28032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}