New Film Adaptation Rekindles Decades-Old Colonial Debate
More than eight decades after its initial publication, Albert Camus's seminal novel L'Étranger continues to provoke intense discussion and disagreement across the literary world. The French director François Ozon has now taken on the formidable challenge of adapting this classic work for cinema, with his black-and-white interpretation scheduled for UK release next year.
Faithful Adaptation or Political Commentary?
Ozon's atmospheric film features Benjamin Voisin as Meursault, the emotionally detached French settler in Algiers whose indifference following his mother's death and subsequent killing of an Arab man leads to his dramatic trial and condemnation. The adaptation has received mixed responses from critics and scholars alike, reviving longstanding controversies about what Camus intended to communicate about French colonial society.
Political scientist Nedjib Sidi Moussa praised Ozon's handling of the material, noting that the film successfully captures the essential absurdity of Camus's original work. "Meursault is not condemned to death for killing an Arab," Moussa explained. "Colonial justice would not condemn a European to death for killing an indigenous person. He's condemned for his indifference, for not crying at his mother's death, because he has an extramarital relationship and is an atheist."
Controversial Creative Choices
The film has drawn particular attention for Ozon's decision to expand the role of the murdered Arab's sister, whom he names Djemila. In a significant departure from the novel, the film concludes with a powerful shot of Djemila visiting her brother's grave, which bears his name - Moussa Hamdani - in Arabic script.
This creative choice has proven divisive, even reaching Camus's own family. Catherine Camus, the author's 80-year-old daughter and literary executor, expressed mixed feelings about the adaptation. "I thought the film was very good but not the role he gave the sister at the end," she commented. "This is not in the book and I felt it was a contradiction. I think François Ozon did it to satisfy wokeism."
Ozon defended his artistic decisions, explaining that he wanted to highlight how the Arab character remains invisible throughout the original narrative. "Djemila has a conscience and a voice in the film," the director stated. "She is there to bear witness to the fact that, in this story and at the trial, her brother is never mentioned, even though he is the one who was murdered."
The director visited Catherine Camus at her home in Lourmarin, Vaucluse, where he successfully persuaded her to trust him with the adaptation after she had previously refused other filmmakers.
Enduring Literary Legacy
Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, was born in French Algeria to pied noir parents and would have enjoyed privileges not afforded to the Arab and Berber majority population. Professor Catherine Brun of the Sorbonne noted that the novel's enduring power lies in its ambiguity. "The novel remains an enigma on to which everyone can project their own interpretations," she observed. "Much like Camus himself."
This marks only the second significant cinematic adaptation of Camus's work, following Luchino Visconti's 1967 version starring Marcello Mastroianni, which was widely considered unsuccessful at the time.
As Ozon's interpretation prepares to reach British audiences, it promises to continue the conversation about colonialism, justice, and the complex legacy of one of France's most celebrated literary exports.
