Algeria’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar, Rachid Bouchareb’s “Outside the Law,” is a powerful, decades-spanning epic about that country’s fight for independence centering on three brothers.
Driven from their home as children in 1925, it’s mostly set in late 1950s Paris, where Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila), released from jail after a long sentence for sedition, becomes a leader in Algeria’s National Liberation Front, orchestrating assassinations and bombings.
He readily enlists his older brother Messaoud (Roschdy Zem) — a tough veteran of the French army in what became the Vietnam War — in the cause. They meet resistance, though, from their apolitical younger sibling Said (Jamel Debbouze), a prosperous nightclub owner and fight promoter.
The brothers finally come together with blazing pistols to battle a covert squad of French vigilantes that has targeted Messaoud.
Extremely well-acted, suspenseful and produced on a lavish scale, “Outside the Law” may oversimplify the complex politics, but it’s a worthy companion piece to “Army of Shadows.”