(old movie projector parts clattering) (Zohra mumbling) (Zohra speaking in French) (ominous music) (Zohra speaking in French) (old movie projector whirring) (ominous music) (Zohra speaking in French) (suspicious music) (Zohra speaking in French) (rhythmic music) (speaking in French) (speaking in French) (timer ticking) (speaking in French) - [Narrator] Algeria, 1956.

The country is a special province of France which it has been for over 130 years.

The Algerians are exploited and oppressed and local people are becoming increasingly discontent.

They resent the French settlers lavish lifestyle.

The Algerians demand independence upon which the French government retaliates with force, but the Algerians use violence too.

The 20-year-old student Zohra Drif, plants a bomb in the Milk Bar.

This attack in the heart of the French quarter in Algiers becomes the symbol of the Algerian struggle for independence.

(distant birds chirping) (suspenseful music) (Nicole speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (Nicole speaking in French) (water running) - [Danielle] I didn't want to close my eyes because when I close my eyes, I would see a leg dancing by itself in the corridor and nearly entering my room and it was a threatening leg, it was not a nice leg.

And I thought if I close my eyes, it would come in and beat me.

So I had trouble to get to sleep.

(Nicole speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (old movie projector whirring) (Zohra speaking in French) - [Announcer] Algeria is wild and wicked and gay and naughty.

The European there always saw something wild and exotic about the Southern shore of the Mediterranean.

(Zohra speaking in French) (rhythmic music) (Zohra speaking in French) (timer ticking) (Zohra speaking in French) (Nicole speaking in French) (rhythmic music) (Nicole speaking in French) - Arabs didn't go to the places we would go to.

To the Milk Bar, French people, colons and Jews, I mean all the what we call Europeans as opposite to Arabs.

So it was an European place.

(Zohra speaking in French) (distant chattering) (soldier speaking in French) (young woman speaking in French) (Zohra speaking in French) (soldier speaking in French) (young woman speaking in French) (soldier speaking in French) (Zohra speaking in French) - [Danielle] There was a park next to it and my grandmother had taken me to the park first and then she took me there to buy me an ice cream.

It was always crowded, always very popular place.

(suspenseful music) (Zohra speaking in French) (timer ticking) (Zohra speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (Zohra speaking in French) (Nicole speaking in French) (people chattering) (Zohra speaking in French) (timer ticking) (coins clattering) (cash register ringing) (Zohra speaking in French) (Nicole speaking in French) (people chattering) (Nicole speaking in French) (bomb exploding) (high-pitched sound) (ominous music) - I don't remember the sound, but I remember that I was trying to call my grandmother, Mimi, and that no sound was coming out of my throat.

And then I realized that I was probably shouting but I was deaf because of the explosion so I couldn't hear myself but I was probably shouting.

(Nicole speaking in French) - Had been sent through the other part of the Milk Bar, because it was small.

(Nicole speaking in French) - I just have the memory of the panic that my grandma was not going to hear me because no sound was coming out of my throat.

(Nicole speaking in French) - I was her only grandchild and she was looking after me when my mother was at work.

And when I asked her the hospital where she was they said she was on a vacation in Paris.

And I remember, I thought well how can she go on vacation when I'm at the hospital?

But that lasted for six months.

And then after six months I left hospital and I came back home and she wasn't there either.

And I told my mother, "She's dead?"

And she said, "Yes."

And that was it.

(guitar music) (Zohra speaking in French) - [Narrator] Zohra Drif has accomplished her mission.

Three people die, dozens of others are injured.

France responds swiftly.

Thousands of extra soldiers arrive in Algeria.

Confrontations in the streets are increasingly bloody.

Events escalate leading to a full-scale war.

(emotional music) (Louis speaking in French) (utensils clattering) (Louis speaking in French) (birds chirping) (Louis speaking in French) (ominous music) (Louis speaking in French) (honorary music) (announcer speaking in French) (rhythmic music) (Henry speaking in French) (rhythmic music) (Henry speaking in French) (footsteps) (wheels whirring) (emotional music) (Henry speaking in French) (vehicle passing) (Henry speaking in French) (emotional music) (Henry speaking in French) (sinister music) (old movie projector parts clattering) (old movie projector whirring) (Zohra speaking in French) (old movie projector whirring) (Zohra speaking in French) (old movie projector whirring) (Zohra speaking in French) (old movie projector whirring) (Zohra speaking in French) (old movie projector whirring) (Zohra speaking in French) (intense action music) - [Announcer] France throws the bulk of its military manpower into the Algerian rebellion which daily assumes the proportions of total war.

Flying columns fan out through the country which on all sides has become a target for hit and run attacks by native gerillas and rounding up gerillas has kept almost 400,000 to France's best troops pinned down.

(intense music) Chief suffers in the raids have been the outlying farm communities.

Many of which have been raised by fire and their operators slaughtered.

Whole factories have been put to the torch.

Even as France builds up its military establishment to peak strength.

(intense music) Arm depots now dot the whole Algerian landscape.

As French forces are deployed to provide slipped striking power in a war of attrition whose end is not in sight.

(Zohra speaking in French) (rhythmic music) (Zohra speaking in French) - [Narrator] Zohra Drif joins the FLN, the Front de Libération Nationale.

The paramilitary branch of the FLN carries out attacks on the French army, the settlers, and Algerians who side with France.

(Zohra speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (Henry speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (Henry speaking in French) (melancholic music) - [Announcer] The war went on.

Rebel dead, 150,000.

Civilian dead, the same number.

French losses 10,000 men.

Many rebels were captured or gave up.

- [Narrator] A few months after the attack on the Milk Bar, Zohra Drif is arrested.

The French had tortured FLN fighters to discover her whereabouts.

(sinister music) (Zohra speaking in French) (emotional music) (Zohra speaking in French) (dramatic music) (singing in French) - [Narrator] In 1960 Charles de Gaulle visits his colony.

The French president is confronted by the ferocious conflict.

The situation is hopeless.

A growing number of European colonies are gaining their independence.

The French can no longer impose their rule on Algeria.

The goal takes a drastic decision.

He meets with the leaders of the Algerian resistance.

During the meeting the goal talks of Algerian independence for the very first time.

French settlers and soldiers fighting to retain control of Algeria perpetrate and angered.

Some of them unite in a secret army, the OAS, the Organisation Armée Secrète.

They carry out bombings and killings in a drive to take power.

Anything to stop Algeria from gaining its independence.

(keys rattling) (bell ringing) (utensils clattering) (Louis speaking in French) (utensils clattering) (Louis speaking in French) (low rhythmic music) (Zohra speaking in French) (soft music) - [Narrator] Paris, October 17th, 1961.

30,000 Algerians and French demonstrate for Algerian independence.

The protest is crushed by the national police and supporters of the OAS.

Algerians are carried off in vans.

Others are thrown into the sun.

Dozens drown.

The OAS continues its reign of terror.

(suspenseful music) (Louis speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (Louis speaking in French) (suspenseful music) (Louis speaking in French) (vehicles screeching) (gun firing) (Louis speaking in French) - [Announcer] All over Europe, the hunters arm for the desperate men who plot against president de Gaulle.

In Paris, 15 men today face the last day of their trial accused of trying to kill him.

(Louis speaking in French) (light music) (Louis speaking in French) (light music) (Louis speaking in French) (de Gaulle speaking in French) - [Narrator] Algeria gains its independence.

While the Algerians take to the streets to celebrate, the French settlers and soldiers flee the country in droves.

(distant cheering) (Zohra speaking in French) (uplifting music) (Zohra speaking in French) (ocean waves crashing) (Nicole speaking in French) (emotional music) - Everybody was crying on the plane.

Everybody was crying.

And years after I understood and I said, well, I was, I was very selfish, very cold because I didn't understand they were leaving the life behind them, but me, I was going towards my new life and a new identity because I stopped being the little girl of the Milk Bar.

(emotional music) (Henry speaking in French) (emotional music) - [Narrator] Over the years, hundreds of thousands of Algerians migrate to France.

These migrants are thorn in the side of extreme right-wing organizations.

Old French nationalist sentiments resurface in the organizations that fight for a pure French identity.

(light music) (kicking pad thudding) (Romain speaking in French) (distant talking) (Romain speaking in French) (distant talking) (Louis speaking in French) (sneaky music) (Romain speaking in French) (sneaky music) (Zohra speaking in French) (light music) - [Danielle] Obviously I understood the reasons of the war.

The struggle they lead, I mean they needed to have their independence.

It was the course of history and it was the course of justice.

It was normal.

So there was no question about it.

For me, it was really normal for the Algerians to claim for independence and a regular status.

They were not citizens.

They could not vote and everything.

So I understood this struggle.

(dramatic music) (Henry speaking in French) - [Narrator] For years, veteran Henry Pouillot has been campaigning to compel the French state to acknowledge French crimes in Algeria.

He writes schools of letters to the government urging the state to take responsibility.

(distant talking) 56 years after independence, the French government issues and official apology.

(Macron speaking in French) (people clapping) (Henry speaking in French) (dramatic music)