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  • Les Hommes Libres/The Free Men (2011)

    Presented by Dr. Ethan Katz
    Directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi

    Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 2:00 pm

    (99 minutes)

    Main Library Auditorium

    Still from the film Les Hommes Libres

    This French war drama recounts the largely untold story about the role that Algerian and other Muslims in Paris played in the French Resistance and as rescuers of Jews during the German occupation (1940–1944).

    The film features two historic figures: Si Kaddour Benghabrit, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, and Salim Halali, an Algerian Jewish singer. Tahar Rahim stars as a young Algerian and Michael Lonsdale as the rector. French with English subtitles.

    Join Dr. Ethan Katz, Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkley and the author of The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard University Press, 2015), for an introduction of the film and a discussion of Muslim-Jewish relations in North Africa and France and the stories of Muslims saving Jews during the Holocaust.

    Dr. Ethan Katz, headshot
    Dr. Ethan Katz