Les Diseurs de Vérité

Algerian journalist Sahafi (Agoumi) is faced with an awful dilemma. If he returns to Algeria, he's almost certain to be assassinated. If he takes political asylum in the Netherlands, he faces a bleak existence in a country where he knows no one and is treated like a pariah. Writer/director Traïdia (who emigrated to Holland from Algeria in the late 1970s) explores both options. It's as if Sahafi is leading parallel lives. In one strand of the story, we see him fighting a forlorn battle for freedom of speech in Algeria. In the other, he runs aground against an implacable Dutch bureaucracy. Sombre, heavy on talk, this is a probing and intelligent political drama. Agoumi, one of Algeria's best known stage actors, brings dignity and pathos to his role as the conscience-torn journalist.