On 13 February 1960, as the countdown ended in the Algerian desert, France became a nuclear power. Rachid Bouchareb’s documentary traces a fallout that has never ended.
In 1960, in the heart of the Sahara, France detonated its first atomic bomb at Reggane, in Algeria, then still a French colony, and became the world’s fourth nuclear power. Built from the newsreels and official commentary of the time, Rachid Bouchareb’s documentary follows the countdown, the mixed reactions on French streets and the tests that followed, including a radioactive leak in 1962. Sixty-five years on, the land and its people still live with the consequences, in silence.
