China Is Still Far

On November 1 1954 near Ghassira a small village lost in the Aurès a couple of French teachers and an Algerian kingpin were the first civilian victims of a sevenyear war that would lead to the independence of Algeria More than fifty years later Malek Bensmaïl returns to this chaoui village which has become the cradle of the Algerian revolution to film over the seasons its inhabitants its school and its children