Mon Colonel

The retired colonel Duplan is found murdered in his Parisian home.  In the subsequent weeks, the investigators at the ministry of defence receive, chapter by chapter, a diary belonging to Guy Rossi.  We are taken back to 1957 when, as a young law student, he joins the army and is taken under colonel Duplan’s wing during his posting to Algeria.  Rossi is assigned to study the special powers accorded by the French government to its servicemen in Algeria and the extent of the extreme measures the colonel could theoretically take.

From its detective thriller motif, with a murdered body opening the film à la Sunset Boulevard, Laurent Herbiet’s film expands into a layered portrait of a dark period in France’s history.  The bloody Algerian war and the French military’s recourse to torture are confronted with a hard-hitting insight in a pulsating film which draws no easy conclusions.

Mon Colonel is co-scripted by the master of political cinema Costa Gravas (Missing, Amen) and co-produced by the Dardenne brothers (Rosetta, The Child).  Their regular Olivier Gourmet and Cécile de France lead a fine cast, which includes Charles Azanavour’s last performance to date.