This is a fictionalized account of an incident in 1988 New Caledonia, a French colony when Kanak separatists killed three gendarmes and took another group hostage. A young French captain from the elite counter-terrorism group is sent to resolve the crisis and he finds all his skills being tested as he tries to negotiate a successful resolution without any further deaths.
Tags
Drama
|
Terrorism
|
History
Programmer's Note
Mathieu Kassovitz’s new film incisively dissects an incident that roiled France in 1988 and unsettled the country’s presidential elections. A careful and balanced analysis of political, military and diplomatic force endows this film with unusual intelligence, but to describe
L’ordre et la morale only in intellectual terms does it a disservice. Its canvas includes the kinetic and the active, and it has a beautiful sense of landscape, in this case the French Pacific colony of New Caledonia.
The incident in question centres on a group of local Kanak separatists who attack a French police post, killing three
gendarmes and taking another twenty-six hostage. The French respond by sending their elite counter-terrorism group, the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group), who operate under Captain Philippe Legorjus (Kassovitz). Arriving after a thirty-hour flight, Legorjus and his small band of men are horrified to discover that the French army has also been deployed in considerable force. The captain is determined to negotiate a peaceful and bloodless resolution to the crisis, but it soon becomes evident that numerous forces threaten to undermine him. An election in France that pits left against right, Mitterrand against Chirac, means that the hostage crisis half a world away gets turned into a political football. A minister arrives, French generals hem and haw, and decisions are changed and revised, throwing Legorjus’ delicate negotiations with the Kanak leader into constant jeopardy.
Kassovitz directs the film with both authority and subtlety. The machinations of power, phone calls to Paris and meetings in New Caledonia are vividly depicted. The moments when our beleaguered captain comes face to face with the implacable Kanak leader, a man who just wants independence for his country, are extraordinarily moving. For some reason
Apocalypse Now comes to mind: a young officer is sent into the jungle on a mission to solve a problem. The scope of
L’ordre et la morale is certainly not unlike Coppola’s masterpiece.
Piers Handling
Director's Bio
Mathieu Kassovitz was born in Paris, and is a writer, director, producer and actor. He is also the founder of the film production company MnP Enterprise. His feature films are
Métisse (93),
La haine (95),
Assassin(s) (97),
Les rivières pourpres (00),
Gothika (03),
Babylon A.D. (08) and
Rebellion (11).