This was a hard movie to watch. There's not really a protagonist to root for; it's basically just watching a civil war happen with both sides committing acts of terrorism on the other. In the 1960s, Algeria was starting to really fight against the colonial occupation of France. In the capital city, Algiers, a well-organized revolutionary underground attacked police, only for the police to retaliate by bombing Arab neighborhoods. The violence escalated on both sides until the military was called in to establish martial law. A handful of rebel leaders continued to commit coordinated bombings while the military used every method at their disposal to root them out.
If I had to describe this movie in one word it would be "bleak". There are no good guys here. It doesn't help that it's filmed in a documentary style that never shies away from the violence, but never seems to glorify it either. The camera remains dispassionate, or at most, condemns both sides. I don't know if you could make a movie like this today.
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