Intimate Enemies
Intimate Enemies French LEnnemi intime is a 2007 French war film, directed by Florent Emilio Siri, starring Benot Magimel, Albert Dupontel and Mohamed Fellag. It was filmed in France and Morocco.
When the Fellagha Algerian insurgents massacre the population of a local village in retaliation for a patrol visit from Terriens 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. Terriens 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 combathardened 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 LEnnemi intime. Terriens idealistic view of French involvement in Algeria is summed up during a conversation with Captain Berthaut Marc Barb, 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 cant 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 comradeinarms 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
Source: Wikipedia
