Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès / To Be Twenty in the Aures

Based on interviews with veterans of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), this film explores how war reshapes identity. A group of young pacifists from Brittany is taken to a camp destined to deserters. They end up by accepting the increasing violence with which they are trained, and become true killing machines. In April, 1961, they are moved to the Aurès mountains in Algeria where they face off against troops from the Algerian National Liberation Army. During the battle, the battalion captures a rebel fighter which they shall execute the next morning. Their most precious ideals are tested by the reality and the demands of war.