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Film Reviews

The Stranger

Cast :- Benjamin Viosin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lotin, Denis Lavant

Director – Francois Ozon

Original Title – L’Etranger

Running Time – 122 minutes.  Cert. 15

Reviewed by Michelle Timonwall

Only a brave director will dare to adapt the 1942 novel L’Etranger by Albert Camus, and Francois Ozon has successfully accepted the challenge. In 1930s, a French office worker starts a relationship with a woman with whom he used to work with. During a day trip at the beach with his neighbour, he shoots a young Algerian who was in dispute with the neighbour. Consequently, the office worker goes on trial.

Through highly detailed period realism, the film tackles the imperialist bigotry in colonial French Algeria. The nameless Arab is the “Stranger” in this story, which confirms the imperialist attitudes. The local Arab witnesses are not even called during the trial.

  While honouring the original text, Francois Ozon introduces a modern and contemporary perspective to enhance the original classic.