(Les hommes libres) Engrossing revisionist wartime espionage tale pits Arabs and Jews against the Nazi Occupation. Director Ismaël Ferroukhi’s “Free Men” tells a story of Muslim North Africans in a little-known slice of history. Algerian black marketeer Younes (Tahar Rahim, “A Prophet”) is the romantic hero; a charismatic, effective actor, given to ambiguity, Rahim keeps the viewer afloat in the criss-crossing currents of historical detail about that moment in time even as Ferroukhi’s film suggests another war to come: the French-Algerian conflict of decades on. Portents of dread are sustained with quiet assurance. With Lubna Azabal, Michael Lonsdale, Mahmoud Shalaby, Christopher Buchholz. 99m. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Talking Screens, March 24-30, 2023: Deborah Stratman's "Last Things" | Revisiting Speed Racer, Annihilation, Children Of Men, and… THIS WEEK: "Holy Trinity" at FACETS; "Speed Racer" at Alamo Drafthouse; "The Godfather," "Children of Men," "Jeanne Dielman," "Videodrome" at Doc; "Superman: The Movie," "Dracula," "Annihilation," and Chicago European Union Film Festival at Siskel; "The Bling Ring," "The Shining," and Fred Halsted's "The Sex Garage" and "L.A. Plays Itself" at Music Box; and Deborah Stratman's "Last Things" opens the Onion City…
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