I would have rated this higher if it wasn't for the end of the movie. Not the part where the two characters see each other but after that which describes the true historical context.It was very disappointing to find out the main character we follow throughout the movie didn't exist. It was the two minor characters who were real people.With so much material for actual people and actual events from that era, I don't understand why you would make a movie where the real life people are supporting characters in minor roles. I much would have preferred the main character to have been real for, as I have stated, there are plenty to choose from.

I ignored IMDb's rating and just watched this hoping it'd be a good film. I was very disappointed. The story seemed interesting and it seemed at first as if it had many undertones and little stories and details—even a certain poetry—, but soon it was all simplified and followed a slow, distant rhythm like some sort of thriller and I started losing interest in the character and his situation.I could say most of the actors were great, especially Michael Lonsdale, but the rest, including Tahar Rahim, carried a considerable emotional weight throughout the movie, but merely on the surface; it didn't create deep connections with other characters or situations, and that's also how most scenes were. I can't help to blame the director and the script for all this. The photography was great and the art direction, as well, even when the color palette is extremely rehashed nowadays, because it wasn't distractive and helped create a certain atmosphere. I think the director wanted to create a very epic film—considering it was filmed in 10 weeks in France and Morocco—with a lot of tension and character development, but for some reason, everything ended up cut into bits of it and some under-layers of the story came to the surface and they became so explicit they appear as banal and forced, separating bit by bit from whatever was supposed to be the main truth of this film.It seemed like the movie was approached from the wrong angle and carried out with the wrong sensitivity and vision, because I fail to understand what it really was about and the concluding texts at the end only make me reinforce everything I have said since I almost didn't bother to read them. But it caught my attention the homage intention of them and it made me rethink of the whole movie again from that perspective. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything new and nothing appeared to have an extra value. If this was a movie about friendship or fighting for a cause, I don't understand why I didn't feel such weight, such connections, such struggle and such sacrifice, because, as I saw it, the characters weren't really risking anything or nothing that mattered to them anyway; when they tried to do noble acts, they looked more like they were just doing it for the hell of it as if they had nothing else better to do.Instead of seeing "Free Men" in this film, I saw empty men with no passion, no desire whatsoever for life. Stereotypes and victims with no will of their own.

The setting is Paris during the Nazi Occupation of World War 2. Tahar Rahim, after a powerful performance in "The Prophet", stars here as a young Algerian émigré making his living selling cigarettes and sundries on the black market. Rahim reminds me of a young Richard Gere and in my opinion has the potential to be a powerhouse in film.During a police raid, he is arrested but offered his freedom if he'll act as an informant at the local mosque. He agrees but is not very good at it and soon realizes his allegiance is more with the Muslim community than it is with the Vichy government.When a young woman, played by Lubna Azabel, who is being hidden at the mosque, and to whom Rahim is attracted, is arrested by the police and executed Rahim begins to work for the Resistance Movement, along with his cousin.As he soon learns, the director of the mosque, played by the wonderful actor Michael Lonsdale, is helping North African Jews, and others, obtain fake identities and sheltering them from the Nazis. This part of history I was not aware of and it was quite interesting to me.Rahim befriends an enormously talented local singer, played by Mahmoud Shalaby, and tries to protect him when the Nazis find out he is Jewish. The singing is the film is quite mesmerizing and adds to the enjoyment considerably.When Rahim's Resistance cell is uncovered he must, along with his compatriots, battle for his survival.In summary, I found this film to be well paced and quite engrossing, with enjoyable music and offers a lesson in history.

Ismaël Ferroukhi both wrote (with Alain-Michel Blanc) and directed this emotionally charged story based on fact and peppered with real and fictitious characters to drive home the point of the film - that differences among peoples become erased in response to a common enemy. This is a powerful little film made more radiant because of the brilliant cast.In German occupied Paris in WW II there is a segment of Algerian and Moroccan immigrants who survive on the fringes largely due to people like the unemployed Younes (the handsome and gifted French actor of Algerian origin Tahir Rahim) who runs a black market selling cigarettes, tea, coffee and food to his fellow Algerians - until he is caught by the police. Instead to going to prison he is set up to spy on the Paris Mosque, thought by the police to be center for the Mosque authorities, including its rector Ben Ghabrit (Michael Lonsdale) of aiding Muslim Resistance agents and helping North African Jews by giving them false certificates. At the Mosque, Younes meets the Algerian singer Salim Halali (Mahmud Shalaby), and is moved by Salim's beautiful voice and strong personality. When Younes discovers that Salim is Jewish, he stops collaborating with the police and gradually transforms from a politically ignorant immigrant black marketeer into a fully-fledged freedom fighter. It is this friendship between Younes and Salim that shapes the changes in Younes character, allowing him to move form a non-political opportunist to a committed freedom fighter.There are many side stories that occur - the influence of the Gestapo, the presence of the mysterious Leila (the profoundly gifted and beautiful Lubna Azabal), Vichy collaborators, Muslims, Jews, Christians, resistance fighters, communists, spies, snitches, fugitives, traitors, criminals, children and innocents - with the theme of discovered camaraderie emerging slowly but surely. This is an inspired film that opens windows to parts of WW II history little known to the general public, and at films end the history of the post war activities of those character who are real is revealed, with 'Younes' being described as the general representative of all the Algerian and Jewish immigrants. The score is filled with the singing of Salim/Mahmud Shalaby that adds a definite feeling of authenticity to the film. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Grady Harp