Sarraounia

It is easy to misread the marketing for this movie and expect it to be very different, mainly because of the name, but the movie actually focuses quite a bit on the French troops. The titular Sarraounia is shown every once in a while, but doesn't really get that much to do.

Maybe that is as it should be. She is a symbol of the resistance. Just watching her make speeches would definitely get boring, while the inner squabbles of the French have a very different tension than what we usually see in a war movie.

This does feel a little strange in the sense that the hero of the movie is just living her life while the bad guys fall apart on their own. Captain Voulet, as the commander, does his best to keep his troop together, but that is a huge hill to climb and we have no reason to like him. The other memorable officer is the unit doctor, who is there more or less against his will, but is trying his best under impossible conditions.

Because of the point of view, this movie is not going to be for everyone. Like Hondo's movies in general, the movie is about the impact and racism of the colonial projects of the French to the peoples of Northern Africa, so it's not going to be for everyone. For those more interested in these obscure movies, I wouldn't say it's quite on the level that you should definitely seek it out, but since you should seek out West Indies and the easiest way to find that is probably the box set in which you can find this one as well, you definitely shouldn't dismiss this.