Rachid Bouchareb’s churning film is like an Algerian-Islamic take on The Battle of Algiers, though set mostly in slum Paris and packed with American-gangster clichés. Three émigré, brothers fight the French as revolutionaries and simply to survive. Ironically, the movie seems to sustain the old, racist, French-colonial claim that the rebels were criminal thugs and fanatics who couldn’t understand France’s “civilizing mission.” Roschdy Zem is the appealing but lethal brother, nagged by his soul. (2011) — David Elliott
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