La trahison

In the powerful Betrayal, with beautiful rolls by Vincent Martinez en Ahmed Berrhama, among others, Faucon shows the complexity and absurdity of war. Not with bloodstained images, but in a psychological way: the greatest battle takes place in the heads of the people. During the Algerian civil war in the early 1970s, the French lieutenant Roque is detached to the Algerian desert with his men. Officially he is there to reassure the local people and to convince them of the good intentions of the French. His real task is to put out of action the FLN (Front de Liberation Nationale), the underground Algerian liberation Army. Roque is tired of the hopeless war and finds himself increasingly in conflict with his conscience. He sees civilians being tortured but also has to maintain the morale of his men. When he comes into the possession of a notebook containing information about a possible attack on his men, his conflict of conscience increases. One of the suspects is Taieb, his confidant and a French soldier of Algerian origin. Is the information in the book true or is it meant to sow suspicion? Faucon’s sober, restrained narrative style not only shows the point of view of the French lieutenant, but also that of the Algerian soldiers. However, their discussions among themselves can be interpreted in several ways. The suspense about the betrayal is maintained until the end. (SdH)

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