THE GARDENERS OF THE RUE DES MARTYRS
A documentary film directed by Leila Habchi & Benoit Prin
2003  / 81 minutes / French and Arabic, English subtitles
 
Close to 40 years after the war of Algeria ended, in a factory workers’ garden, in Tourcoing, city from the North of France, french and algerian men work on their piece of land. These men were the conscripts, National Liberation Front militants or “harkis” from a colonial war led by the french republic.
 
This garden is then, the place for a memory of many aspects, where men who could have met at war or in a factory, get together. Here the growing of a vegetable garden, universal activity above all, which brings them together. Sharing from a distance a common history, considering each other with indifference or even hostility for cultural, social or political reasons, side by side they work on the same patch of land. 
 
 
Authors : Leïla Habchi & Benoît Prin
Image : Linda Chorab & Leïla Habchi
Sound : Benoît Prin
Editing : Ruben Korenfeld, Corinne Bachy & Benoît Prin