Les folles années du twist / The Crazy Years of the Twist

Director Mahmoud Zemmouri, an Algerian émigré, offers a satirical perspective of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The story takes place in a small town of Algeria in the two last years of the war. Boualem and Sahah, two young Algerian teenagers living in a small town express their generational protest through their obsession with Western pop culture and the "twist" dance. Removed from the front lines of the war, they seize the opportunities created by the chaos of bomb detonations for their own personal gain through petty thievery. Though they eventually join the National Liberation Front (FNL), their fear, cowardice, and opportunism characterize their service.