Deserter
Unlikely friends in a melting pot of confusion. Simon Murray fights for the French Foreign Legion. Pascal Dupont fights for himself. War torn men question honour, hope, morality...because you can desert everything...except yourself.
Daniel Ali, a rebellious schoolteacher in colonial Algeria
In 1954, Daniel Vérin, a young schoolteacher of Algerian descent, made a radical decision: he turned his back on colonial France and joined the Algerian insurgents. He enlisted in the FLN, then the ALN, and became "Ali," a soldier in the struggle for independence. At the end of the war in 1962, he became an Algerian citizen. But the long-awaited independence did not bring Ali the taste of victory. On a scholarship, he went to study in the United States. Upon his return, the Algerian administration forbade him from entering his homeland. Rejected by the country he had defended, he obtained American citizenship in 1969. Condemned by France for his activism and ignored by Algeria for more than forty years, Ali was not officially recognized as a mujahid, a fighter of the Revolution, until 2004.
Messali Hadj - A Life In Service To The Algerian People
The life and political activism of Messali Hadj (1898-1974), an Algerian internationalist politician who played a pioneering role in the process leading to Algerian independence, which he demanded as early as 1927. He was initially secretary of the North African Star (ENA), then in 1937 he founded the Algerian People's Party (PPA), in 1946 he founded the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD), and finally in 1954, the Algerian National Movement (MNA). In 1937, the leadership of the North African Star (ENA) created its flag, green with a white star and crescent. Messali Hadj's wife, Emilie Busquant-Messali, simply sewed this ENA flag by machine; it would later become the flag of the PPA. In 1943, Messali Hadj, in conjunction with the party leadership, created the ENA-PPA flag, green and white with a red star and crescent, which would later become the current flag of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.
Une vie française
FLN, A Sacrifice for History
In 1958, in the midst of the Algerian War and two months before the World Cup, the French Football Federation (FFF) discovered on April 15th that nine of its players of Algerian origin had secretly left France to join the headquarters of the National Liberation Front (FLN) in Tunis, where the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) was based. They chose to leave everything behind—careers, fame, money—to support the FLN cause: the independence of the Algerian people. Their daring escape was worthy of a thriller and made headlines across the international press. For four years, the FLN team toured the world and became the standard-bearer for a people. FIFA refused to recognize the team and threatened federations that played against it with sanctions. Nevertheless, the team made a lasting impression with 57 wins, 14 draws, and 12 losses in 83 matches. Ferhat Abbas, president of the GPRA, told them, "You have gained ten years for the cause of independent Algeria."