'Operation Maillot' about Henri Maillot premiered in Algiers

The film "Operation Maillot" by director Touita Okasha, retracing the route of the anti-colonialist activist, Henri Maillot, was screened Thursday in Algiers.

Produced by the Algerian Agency for Cultural Radiation (Aarc), as part of the 50th anniversary of Algeria's independence, the 120 minute film highlights Henri Maillot's path as activist, who deserted the French army in 1956 to join the Algerian the liberation struggle.

The film begins with the story of this young French soldier who decides to hijack a truck loaded with weapons to the Fighters of the Liberation (CLD), groups set up by the Algerian Communist Party (PCA) and who joined the ranks of the National Liberation Army.

Presented as a fiction, the film is inspired by the only biography of the activist of the Algerian cause.

Following the screening, the director stressed that his work is meant to be a "gratitude to Henri Maillot and all those who contributed to liberating the Algerian people, including Maurice Laban", another martyr of the Algerian cause fell in the same time with Maillot.

For the director, the film is "a duty to the memory of an activist like Henri Maillot, martyr of the Algerian Revolution," like all the martyrs who fell in battle.