Far from Men

Featuring a career-best performance from the multi-talented Viggo Mortensen and a superb original soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, FAR FROM MEN is a gripping tale of morality and friendship set during the Algerian War, against an unforgiving mountainous landscape. The year is 1954, the war is beginning and village schoolteacher Daru (Mortensen), an ex-French Army soldier, is caught in the crossfire. Born in Algeria but Spanish by lineage, he's a man out of time and place, perceived as alien by both locals and colonisers alike. So when he reluctantly agrees to escort a dissident (rising star Reda Kateb) to a regional police station to face trial for murder, a series of incidents and revelations force the question of where Daru's loyalties truly lie. Based on a story by Albert Camus and widely acclaimed at the Venice Film Festival where it premiered in Official Competition, writer/director David Oelhoffen's masterful, breathtakingly-shot drama bears all the hallmarks of a classic frontier western, yet carries strong contemporary resonances.