Adaptation of a prize-winning novel
A film adaptation of Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's Meursault, contre-enquête, which won the Goncourt Prize for first novel in 2015, explores the identity of "the Arab," the unnamed victim in Albert Camus's 1942 novel L'Étranger. Reimagining an unnamed character
In Daoud's novel, the Arab is given the name Moussa, along with a family and background, which the film directed by Malek Bensmaïl further develops. The story shifts the focus from Camus's protagonist to the victim's perspective. Setting and characters
The film is set in the 1990s in Oran, where an old man named Haroun, played by the late comedian Ahmed Benaïssa in his final role, pleads with a journalist to believe that L'Étranger is not a work of fiction but an account of the real murder of his brother. Family connection
Their mother was convinced of this claim, adding a personal and emotional layer to the narrative as the film delves into the real-life implications of Camus's fictional tale.
