A good movie

Considering my own background (French mother, Dutch father), it was pretty obvious that I would feel a connection for this man torn apart between two cultures. To be honest, even though I can imagine that Viggo Mortensen was interested for exactly the same reasons by this project, I'm not sure a half-Danish, half-American actor was the best choice to play a Frenchman with Spanish roots living in an Algerian village. Indeed, even though Mortensen did deliver a solid performance, I wasn't really convinced by his French. On top of that, it is always a little bit disappointing that, even though the movie takes place in Africa, the main character is still a 'white' guy who is good-looking, smart, good with kids, heroic, war veteran, so wise that he knows exactly what is best for his Algerian prisoner. So, the whole thing was a little bit flawed on the edges but I still enjoyed the damned thing. Indeed, the directing was solid, displaying some gorgeous landscapes and you could get a pretty good idea of what it must have been like to be living in this country during these insecure and dark ages. To conclude, even though it was not really mind-blowing, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look.

7/10