esrosedotblog

Today's movie is a combination road and buddy film.

Loin des homes / Free From Men (2015)

A Frenchman teaches Arab kids at a remote school. Trouble comes in the form of the Algerian war.

The teacher is "commanded" to take an Arab prisoner back to the central city. The guy is accused of murder of his cousin over a familial dispute.

The two set out and encounter many obstacles on their journey.

That is it. Based on a Camus short story, there is a bundle of moral and ethical issues to carry on the trip to be unbundled.

The teacher learns that his detachment from the life around him is just a form of avoidance. The man that he is taking back to jail learns that all Frenchmen are not evil. Much more. Nothing Camus wrote was really simple.

It is so simple that it is abundant with messages. Camus was promoting his philosophy so the dilemmas are not easily unraveled.

Viggo Mortensen is the teacher and Reda Kateb is the prisoner. Katab is a frequent presence in many films based on the Arab world. A star in that universe.

The relationship between the men is wonderful and as the road comes to an end there is a touching conclusion. Not a surprise so much as a sweet resolution of the problem they both face.

Labels: films