10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Loin des hommes (2015 Feature Film)

Marisol Gómez Mouakad | Puerto Rico, Mexico | 2016 | color | DCP | 90 min | Spanish, English | e.s.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence, a teacher (Viggo Mortensen) is forced to accompany a local murderer (Reda Kateb) across the Atlas Mountains to a French colonial court. A North African Western, based on a short story by Albert Camus. Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

French colonial Algeria, 1954: the War of Independence is about to break out. This is the birthplace of Albert Camus, author of the short story L’Hôte (The Guest) from 1954, on which director David Oelhoffen based his screenplay.

Algerian murderer Mohamed (Reda Kateb) is delivered, bound, to Daru (Viggo Mortensen), a teacher born in Algeria to Spanish parents. He must take this man across the Atlas mountains to a remote court. He starts the journey with great reluctance, as it means leaving behind the little school he runs in the middle of nowhere.

Like in a real Western – except in North Africa – the two men undertake the arduous trek through the Algerian desert, accompanied by the atmospheric music of composers Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, braving bad weather and battles between revolutionaries and colonial forces. They are even chased by villagers who want to try the prisoner according to their own blood laws. Inevitably, the pair grow closer together.

Place: The Cinemas 2

Date: 27 March 2015

Time: 19:00

Duration: 2:00

Place: The Cinemas 3

Date: 28 March 2015

Time: 10:45

Duration: 2:00

Year in
Festival

2015

Director

Steven Knight

Camera

Guillaume Deffontaines

Cast

Viggo Mortensen
Reda Kateb

Country

France

Editor

Juliette Welfling

Length

110 min

Music

Nick Cave
Warren Ellis

Producer

Guy Heeley
Paul Webster

Production Company

One World Films

Production Design

Stéphane Taillasson

Scenario

David Oelhoffen
based on a short story by Albert Camus

Sound Design

Martin Boissau
Thomas Desjonquères
Emmanuel Croset

Year of Production

2014

Website

David OELHOFFEN (1968, France) wrote and directed his first short film, The Wall, in 1996. Ten years later, his feature debut In Your Wake screened at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes. His Far from Men was nominated for a Golden Lion and won three prizes at the film festival of Venice.

 

Filmography

Le mur (1996, short), Big Bang (1997, short), En mon absence (2001, short), Echafaudages (2004, short), Sous le bleu (2004, short), Nos retrouvailles/In Your Wake (2007), Loin des hommes/Far from Men (2014)