Sami Bouajila

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Rachid Bouchareb’s “Outside the Law” paints a vivid family portrait of a trio of brothers at the forefront of a violent, impassioned time in France as the country was trying to stop a revolution in Algeria and dealing with the violence that brought to their home country. With a story that spans decades, “Outside the Law” is sometimes a bit too episodic and stuffed with history to register emotionally but the three central performances carry the piece overall.

CHICAGO – While Paris, France in 1984 probably wasn’t as romantic as the Paris in several of its other lionized eras, it existed just the same. As portrayed in “The Witnesses,” it was an age that may have been more uncertain than the others based on a melting pot of inhabitants who immigrated to the City of Lights in search for a new life.