Nicolas Jallot

On September 9, 2001, Commander Massoud, a hero of the Afghan resistance, was assassinated by two members of al-Qaeda posing as journalists. Two days later, the terrorist organization struck the United States. However, a few months earlier, during a visit to France, Commander Massoud had come to warn the West about the disastrous plans of al-Qaeda and the rise of the Taliban. He asked the West to exert pressure on Pakistan, a country that supplied arms, supported and sheltered the Taliban, but which was also a major buyer of French arms. He was not listened to.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 sent the world into a state of shock. Yet some had been loudly and publicly warning of the dangers posed by terrorism. Ahmad Shah Massoud, an Afghan Mujahideen commander, was among them.

This film is primarily a smell. An indescribable scent that marks you forever. The smell of war, of death. The smell of impossible peace. Constructed as an investigation, the film is a double testimony, that of the executioner and that of the victim, presenting the turning point in the history of a country, a region, several peoples that are at the center of all conflicts in the Middle East. The film tells the story of 5 days in September 1982, which itself sums up a century of conflict. In one place, Beirut. An investigation based on the testimonies of all the protagonists, victims, executioners, accomplices and witnesses.

This is the story of a conflict that definitively changed the face of the world. From the Cold War to the attacks of September 11, 2001, from the Soviets to Al-Qaeda terrorists, from the Mujahideen resistance fighters to the Taliban, from the alliances of the past to those of today, ten years of world history are revisited through the lens of Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989. A plunge into the heart of a tragedy that shaped the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st . Ten years of war, suffering, and destruction in a unique international context marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of communism, and the emergence of the terrorist network that threatens the planet. It resonates strongly with the present.