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Movie Info & Details
Release Year1970
Runtime2h 17m
LanguageArabic
CertificationNR
GenresAction, Drama, War
Votes9
DirectorAhmed Rachedi
WritersAhmed Rachedi
TypeFeature Film
Rating7.8 out of 10
Cast10 credited
Also Known AsOpium and the Stick
About Opium and the Stick
In 1950, in Algeria, in a village in Kabylia, Algerian resistance fighters resisted the French occupation army. Bachir returns to the village to escape the clashes ravaging Algiers. In Thala, he has two brothers, Ali and Belaïd. The first is engaged with the ALN (The National Liberation Army) and fights against the colonizer. His second brother, Belaïd, the eldest, is convinced of a French Algeria. His family torn apart, Bachir decides to join the war and takes sides against the repression of the French army. The French army is trying in vain to turn the population against the insurgents by using disinformation. The more time passes, the more the inhabitants of the village and surrounding areas, oppressed, rally to the cause of the FLN, their houses and their fields will be burned... Adaptation to the cinema of the eponymous novel Opium and the Stick, published in 1965, by Mouloud Mammeri, the film was dubbed into Tamazight (Berber), a first for Algerian cinema.
Directed by Ahmed Rachedi, Opium and the Stick leans on a strong ensemble — Sid Ali Kouiret, Marie-José Nat, Mustapha Kateb — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.
The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about action titles of 1970.
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