Far From Men

Synopsis: At the outset of the Algerian War of independence, a schoolteacher, Daru (Viggo Mortensen), escorts a prisoner named Mohamed (Reda Kateb) to the French authorities for trial.

Acknowledging itself as “freely adapted” from an Albert Camus short story that was first published in his 1957 collection of writings, “Exile and the Kingdom”, as one might expect, Far From Men revolves around issues of free will and determinism: can Daru choose not to escort Mohamed to the French authorities; can Mohamed not go to his certain death; can the French not execute Arab rebels who are surrendering; is Daru on the side of the French or the Arabs?

I have not read the Camus story and so have no idea how much of what we see is the work of French writer-director David Oelhoffen other than the unforgiving setting of the barren landscape, its abandoned buildings and tired, weathered faces. Shot almost entirely in the colours of earth and stone by Guillaume Deffontaines (it was shot in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco). it is an unrelentingly stark context for a slowly unfolding story in which bit by bit we learn how these two men’s lives became entwined and they come to learn about and respect each other.  Daru comes to understand that Mohamed, who initially seemed cowardly and shiftless, is driven by a strong moral imperative; Mohamed learns that Daru is less an agent of the occupying force than a kind of spiritual and cultural nomad.

All this is done in an impressively low-key way, the pared-down combination of the two self-contained men and the harsh landscape being the film’s greatest strength.  The brief action sequences jar somewhat and even more so does a scene late in the film when the men stumble into Daru’s home village where there is a thriving brothel with comely wenches at the ready. This had to be part of the above-mentioned liberality and it is a ill-judged embellishment.

Whilst both Mortensen and Kateb fit into Oelhoffen’s picture very effectively the overall result is a little too restrained to be particularly involving.  At the film’s end when he announces that he is going to leave the school one of Daru’s pupils gives him what looks like a page torn from a colour magazine . We never see what it is but it doesn’t seem to matter that much

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