Intimate Enemies (2007 film)
Intimate Enemies | |
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Running time | 111 minutes |
Countries | France Morocco |
Languages | French Arabic Kabyle |
Budget | $9.8 million[1] |
Box office | $5.9 million[1] |
Intimate Enemies (French: L'Ennemi intime) is a 2007 French war film directed by Florent-Emilio Siri, starring Benoît Magimel and Albert Dupontel. It was filmed in France and Morocco.
Plot
The film is set in 1959 during the
When the Fellagha (Algerian insurgents) massacre the population of a local village in retaliation for a patrol visit from Terrien’s platoon, on the assumption that the villagers may have collaborated with the French, Terrien vows to remain calm and professional despite the appalling horrors that greet him. Terrien saves a young boy from drowning in the village well and is gradually forced to see the conflict through the eyes of that child: a child who temporarily adopts the French soldiers almost as a surrogate family. Terrien’s determination to remain detached, professional and controlled despite the atrocities that occur around him, including the torture, abuse and summary execution of Algerian prisoners, quickly gains him the initial contempt of Sergeant Dougnac (Albert Dupontel) his combat-hardened and cynical platoon sergeant, who has come to the conclusion that the level of violence employed by the Fellaghas can only be countered by equally brutal measures applied by the French.
The blooding of the young Lieutenant and the way in which he reacts to his newfound knowledge and experience provides the dramatic arc of L’Ennemi intime. Terrien’s idealistic view of French involvement in Algeria is summed up during a conversation with Captain Berthaut (Marc Barbé), an intelligence officer, when Terrien argues that as metropolitan French citizens the Algerians should enjoy the same political rights as any other French citizen and states that "You can’t fight barbarism with barbarism". Berthaut, identified as a former member of the French Resistance who was tortured by the Gestapo, a veteran of the French Indochina War and an old comrade-in-arms of Dougnac, disagrees and later in the film, states that, "At 110 volts the truth always comes out". Berthaut is killed and mutilated during a Fellaghist ambush as he attempts to evacuate a wounded soldier out of the ‘Forbidden Zone’ by jeep. Later, French soldiers (Terrien among them) retaliate by massacring and burning an entire village. In view of such atrocities, Terrien slowly begins to change his view.
Dougnac, identified within the film as a veteran of French Indochina, is a complicated character who is not averse to resorting to torture and barbarism when it comes to dealing with insurgents yet is capable, professional and increasingly privately respectful of Terrien as an officer and as a man. Their professional differences and the harsh realities of operations in the field, however, drive the two men to breaking point with Dougnac finding release through alcohol and at least one instance of self-inflicted torture. Such are the pressures on Dougnac that he finally snaps and deserts the army, whilst Terrien ends up shot by the boy he saved, whose brother was killed in a French military operation.
Cast
- Benoît Magimel as Lieutenant Terrien
- Albert Dupontel as Sergeant Dougnac
- Aurélien Recoing as Commander Vesoul
- Marc Barbé as Captain Berthaut
- Éric Savin as A Sergeant
- Guillaume Gouix as Delmas
- Mohamed Fellagas Idir Danoun
- Vincent Rottiers as Lefranc
Production
L'Ennemi intime, co-written by Florent-Emilio Siri and
Reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 57%, based on 14 reviews, with an average score of 5.6/10.[2] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 61, based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]
Accolades
Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
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Cairo International Film Festival | Golden Pyramid Award | Won | |
Best Director | Florent-Emilio Siri | Won | |
Best Actor | Albert Dupontel | Won | |
César Awards | Best Cinematography | Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci | Nominated |
Best Original Music | Alexandre Desplat | Nominated | |
Best Sound | Antoine Deflandre, Germain Boulay and Eric Tisserand | Nominated | |
Prix Jacques Prévert du Scénario | Best Original Screenplay | Patrick Rotman and Florent-Emilio Siri | Nominated |
See also
References
- ^ a b "L'Ennemi intime". JP's Box-Office.
- ^ "Intimate Enemies (2007)". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^ "L'ennemi intime". Metacritic.