Algier, October 1956: a communist and a member of the FLN (independence fighters), Fernand Iveton volunteers for carrying out sabotage using a bomb in the Hamma gas factory where he works .
November 14, 1956 at 2 p.m. , he placed the bomb in a cupboard in an abandoned room at factory . The objective is purely material sabotage which aims to cause a power outage in Algiers and Iveton takes precautions so that the explosion does not cause any casualties . He requested that the bomb be set to explode after the workers left.
Iveton is spotted by a factory foreman, who warns his boss. Iveton was arrested at 4:20 p.m. The bomb is defused by the military. There was no damage or casualties.
Iveton did not kill anybody and he did not intend to do so ; in spite of it all ,he was sentenced to death ;his plea for clemency was refused by the French government ,(president Coty and French garde des sceaux -French minister of justice- future socialist president Mitterrand ) , who at the time was keen to reconciliate with the USA (witch hunt in the fifties )
He was the only European (among 178 executions) to be guillotined after a travesty of a trial : he was tortured (no need to show the act, the accused's bruised body tells it all ) but it does not play any part in the final verdict,applaused by the populace .The doctor 's examination does not carry much weight for a political prisoner ,sentenced as an example.
The film is certainly courageous, showing a side of French history which is too often passed over in silence ,but it is sometimes marred by insignificant flashbacks ; some of them make sense : the wife,whose father is still behind the iron curtain and who does not approve of eastern communism; the stepson,admiring the husband and even trying step in his shoes .
But too many scenes deal with a pathetic love story ,not always convincing ,and too little time is given over to the questioning , to the trial and to the situation in France ; the scenes with his brothers -in- arm are few and far between ; his last lines (historically accurate)were prophetic: "A man's life, mine, counts for little. What matters is Algeria, its future".
In spite of some reservations ,a film which must be seen .
