De guerre lasse

Crime cinema loves Marseilles, for it truly is a city of shady dealings done by gangs from various ethnic backgrounds – the kind of culture only harbor towns breed. In De guerre lasse it’s a pied-noir outfit vs. the Corsican mafia. At the former’s top is Armand, whose son Alex kills a member of the latter. To lay low, Alex enlists in the Foreign Legion – the way these things have been done since forever. When he returns after years of marching to Le Boudin, the rules and their makers have changed. Nevertheless, there are quite a few people waiting for him, all with their own sweet reasons…
De guerre lasse is, of course, first and foremost a prime piece of gangster cinema at its toughest and sharpest. But if we look a bit more closely, we might find traces of a Greek tragedy there, with damning family secrets and too many untold stories. A true gem: grim and serene at the same time!