For Djamila (2011)

February 1960: Djamila Boupacha, 22, is arrested in Algeria - in those days a French colony. She is accused of hiding freedom fighters and planting a bomb - which didn't go off - in a busy and popular café. After seemingly interminable custody, she confesses and faces a possible death penalty. Three months later, Parisian attorney Gisèle Halimi arrives in Algiers. On her first visit to Barberousse jail, she discovers a young militant covered in scars and proclaiming her innocence: A false confession was extracted from her under torture. The French administration does everything to prevent Gisèle Halimi from defending her client and revealing the practices of the French army in Algeria. The lawyer, backed by her husband - the secretary of Jean-Paul Sartre - mobilizes a growing number of highly influential figures: André Malraux, François Mauriac, Françoise Sagan, and, notably, Simone de Beauvoir. Gisèle Halimi manages to attain that a medical examination be carried out on Djamila's battered body in France and consequently that she be tried in France too. On March 18th, 1962, the Evian Accords bring an end to the Algerian War. Yet to stand trial, Djamila suddenly finds herself free. On her return to Algeria, Djamila does not become a nurse as she once hoped, but a symbol of independence and a figurehead in the fight against torture.