In this award-winning documentary, we follow the journey of Sarah to find out the painful truth about her family history. When she became a mother, the young Frenchwoman decided to break the silence that surrounded her family's past. Her grandfather was a Harki who fought alongside the French army during the Algerian War. After Algerian independence in 1962, the whole family fled to France. But instead of being welcomed with open arms, the family, like many Harkis, were placed in an internment camp in south-western France. This is where Sarah begins her quest for the truth.
A third-generation Harki, Sarah decides she can no longer accept her family's silence about the painful past. By looking into the story of her Harki grandfather, who fought alongside the French forces against the pro-independence National Liberation Front during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), she respectfully but persistently attempts to break the wall of silence. This omerta exists within her own family, but also among members of the Harki community who were interned in the Bias camp in south-western France.
Although the camp today resembles a village, it still bears witness to this shameful past. Refugees from the time and their descendants continue to live there. Little by little, by speaking to them, Sarah manages to assemble the pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle. This mosaic of family memory is also part of 20th-century French history.
The film has won the following prizes at documentary film festivals:
Audience award at the FIGRA Film Festival, "Autrement Vu" section
Special jury award at the Torino Film Festival
Best documentary award at the Festival du Film arabe de Fameck (Fameck Arab Film Festival)
Best documentary award and Dams jury award at the Rome International Documentary Festival
Best documentary award and Best photography award at the Documentaria Film Festival
Best direction award at the Sole Luna Film Festival
Special mention at the FESCAAAL (African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival) in Milan
France in FocusA war without a name: France's controversial colonial past in Algeria
