Les hommes libres

Tahar Rahim,Michael Lonsdale,Lubna Azabal

Paris, occupied France, 1942. Younes, an uneducated Algerian immigrant, ekes out a very modest living on the black market. After the police catch him, they set him free provided he infiltrates the Paris Mosque and spies on the imam. Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit is indeed suspected not only of providing false papers to Jews, but of harboring some of them as well. Once within the precincts of the mosque, Younes proves a poor secret agent, which displeases the police inspector in charge of him. In fact, at the mosque, Younes becomes more alert every day to the great tragedy in progress because of the Germans. He also develops a deep friendship with a singer named Salim Halali. To his amazement, he discovers that Salim is both Jewish and homosexual.—Guy Bellinger