Western feel to civil war story in Viggo Mortensen’s Far From Men

SINCE starring in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Viggo Mortensen has remained steadfastly away from the mainstream movies.

Far From Men film still. Pic supplied

SINCE starring in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Viggo Mortensen has remained steadfastly away from the mainstream movies.

Fluent in several languages, the Danish-American actor has trodden a nomad’s path through American independent, Canadian, Spanish and Argentine films. But as Gandalf would say, not all who wander are lost.

Now he’s the lead in a mesmerising western set in Algeria in the 1950s at the start of the war of independence that would eventually oust the French. Daru (Mortensen) is a schoolteacher with a military past who teaches local kids at his remote little schoolhouse in the Atlas Mountains. Against his wishes, Daru is tasked with delivering an accused Arab prisoner Mohamed (Reda Kateb) to a nearby town to face trial. The two men begin a dangerous journey across desolate lands, running the gauntlet of vengeful tribesfolk, rebels and the French forces.

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French director David Oelhoffen based his film on a short story by existentialist author Albert Camus (The Outsider), but it’s no cold exercise in philosophy. Rather, it’s a poignant story of duty, divided loyalty, the futility of violence and shared humanity despite ethnic differences.

In a role that requires him to speak French and Arabic — is there nothing he can’t do? — Mortensen impresses once again, here playing a man exhausted by the cruelty of the world, just trying to do what he can for his small corner of it.

Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and stark Algerian scenery that could give America’s Death Valley a run for its money, add greatly to the impact of a deliberately paced but ultimately moving film that’s very much in the tradition of classic westerns.

Opens Thursday

FAR FROM MEN

Released by Palace Films

Star rating 4/5

Director David Oelhoffen

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Reda Kateb, Djamel Barek

Rating M

Running time 97 minutes

Verdict A slow moving but resonant North African western

Originally published as Western feel to civil war story in Viggo Mortensen’s Far From Men