L'Ennemi Intime
| Intimate Enemies | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Florent Emilio Siri |
| Produced by | François Kraus Denis Pineau-Valencienne |
| Written by | Florent Emilio Siri Patrick Rotman |
| Starring |
Benoît Magimel Albert Dupontel |
| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
| Cinematography | Giovanni Fiore Coltellaci |
| Edited by | Christophe Danilo Olivier Gajan |
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Production
company |
Les Films du Kiosque
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| Distributed by | SND |
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Release date
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Running time
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111 minutes |
| Country | France Morocco |
| Language | French Arabic Kabyle |
| Budget | $9.8 million |
| Box office | $5.9 million |
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.
The film is set in 1959 during the Algerian War. Lieutenant Terrien (Benoît Magimel), an inexperienced and naïve junior French Army officer, has volunteered for active service, rather than a safe staff post in Algiers. He is posted to Kabylie, a remote and mountainous region of Algeria, as a replacement for Lieutenant Constantin (Hicham Hlimi) who was killed during a ‘friendly fire’ incident commanding a counter-insurgency ambush operation – i.e. he was accidentally killed by his own side during a confused fire-fight. The war in Algeria is much more complicated than Lieutenant Terrien anticipated as he takes over command of his new platoon at the outpost "Mazel". Within hours of taking over his new command Terrien is ordered to lead a ‘locate and destroy’ mission into the zone interdite (the 'Forbidden Zone') to find a World War II French Army veteran named Slimane, now a local commander of Algerian rebels trying to win the independence of their homeland. Slimane is never seen in person during the film.
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.
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Wikipedia