L’Autre côté de la mer

Paris, summer 1994. Georges Montero, the owner of an olive oil mill in Oran, is a pied noir (Algerian-born Frenchman) who chose to remain in Algeria after its independence in 1962. Today, Georges comes to France for the first time in his life for a cataract operation – at the very moment that civil war is just beginnig to take its bloody toll back home. His friend, Belka, a recent emigrant, tries to persuade him to remain in France. Behind his back, he has arranged the sale of George’s mill in Oran. His surgeon, Tarek Timzert, ophtalmologist in a major Paris hospital, is an assimilated Arab who has cut himself off from his Algerian roots. The contact between the pied noir and this tradition-blind Arab brings Georges to make a decision between remaining in France or going home to Oran, at peace with himself but at his own risk. As for Tarek, he will sort a few things out…