Michel is a bored young man in Paris about to be sent to Algeria in the army. He works as a technician at a TV station. One day he meets two teenage girls, Juliette and Liliane, and begins dating them both separately. Eventually the girls find out and Michel goes on vacation to Corsica to escape them. The two girls follow him there and the three search for a film director who owes Michel money. Juliette and Liliane watch Michel sail away on a boat headed for Algeria.
A group of young pacifists from Brittany is taken to a camp destined to deserters. They end up by accepting the increasing violence with which they are trained, and become true killing machines. In April, 1961, they are moved to the Aurès mountains in Algeria where they face off against troops from the National Liberation Army. During the battle, the battalion captures a rebel fighter which they shall execute the next morning. Their most precious ideals are supposed to become overridden by sheer discipline.
Inspiré de faits réels. L'histoire parcourt l'Algérie des années 1930 aux années 1960, racontant le destin de Younes, jeune Algérien élevé comme un pied-noir par son oncle. Il traverse les tragédies vécues par son pays, dont l'attaque de Mers el-Kébir et la guerre d'Algérie, sur un fond d'histoire d'amour impossible.
Le film se déroule en juillet 1961, durant la Guerre d'Algérie (Jacques Davila est natif d'Oran). Pierre, un jeune homme qui fait ses études à Paris, vient passer ses vacances en Algérie, chez sa mère Hélène (Micheline Presle). Celle-ci vit à la campagne avec son ami Jean. À l'occasion d'une fête, Pierre revoit sa petite amie (en passe de le quitter) et une partie des personnes de son passé. À rien de tout cela il ne semble vraiment attaché.
À quelques jours de la fin de la guerre d'Indochine, un commando de treize parachutistes, avec à sa tête le lieutenant Brissac, est largué sur le village vietnamien de Quinh Quang où une infirmière — Catherine Fournier — est retenue prisonnière. Ils la délivrent et font retraite vers leur base — à vingt jours de marche de là — après avoir détruit le village et tué ses habitants. La nuit suivante, un des paras est abattu.
En 1959, deux frères sont séparés par la guerre d'Algérie. Le frère aîné doit partir se battre, et raconte l'horreur au quotidien à son petit frère de 10 ans.
The film begins with an adult woman named France, walking down a road toward Douala, Cameroon. While walking, she is picked up by William J. Park (Emmet Judson Williamson), an African American who has moved to Africa and is driving to Limbe with his son. As they ride, France's mind drifts and we see her as a young girl in Northern French Cameroon where her father was a colonial administrator. The story is conducted through the eyes of young France, showing her friendship with the "houseboy", Protée, as well the sexual tension between him and her young and beautiful mother, Aimée. The conflict of the film comes from the discomfort created as France and her mother attempt to move past the established boundaries between themselves and the native Africans. This is brought to a head through Luc Segalen (Jean-Claude Adelin), a Western drifter who stays with the Dalens family after a small aircraft crashes nearby. He makes public the evident sexual attraction between Aimée and Protée, prompting the mother to act on her desire. This results in a fight between Luc and Protée, who consequently loses his in-house job and is moved to work outdoors in the garage as a mechanic.
Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) is an ineffectual local constable with a cheating wife and laughable job. He accepts condescension from his superiors and his wife with good humor, as his antisocial personality allows him to tolerate such abuse. However, he soon realizes that he can use his position to gain vengeance with impunity, and he starts to kill everyone who has regarded him as a fool.
À Alger, durant la guerre d'Algérie un des responsables du FLN est arrêté par l'armée qui emploie les méthodes les plus violentes pour faire parler les prisonniers. Le recours à la torture pose un cas de conscience à un officier français. Jouant sur le champ-contre-champ, entre le torturé et son tortionnaire, dans un huis clos étouffant.
The movie follows the chronological events of the battle. Some of them are shown in situ, from the heart of the battle, at Dien Bien Phu, while others are reported by civilians at Hanoi city or by paratroopers at Hanoi's civilian airport.