Expertly assembled to draw out the suspense of danger lurking around each vacant hill... the movie creates a world of paradoxical sentiments: immediate decision-making pitted against the immovable forces of ideology and moral codes.

Mortensen's post-Lord of the Rings choices have been an idiosyncratic mix: His my-way-or-the-highway approach doesn't always pay off, but it does here with engrossing results.

What makes it work is the solemn efficiency of director David Oelhoffen's storytelling and the quiet intensity of the two leads: The rough tenderness of Mortensen's gaze plays off well against Kateb's conflicted demeanor.

David Oelhoffen’s film Far from Men is a gripping and immersive western that uses the genre to explore another colonialist nightmare, that of the French occupation of Algiers.