Gerboise bleue

Credits

Name: Gerboise bleue

Country: Frankreich; Algerien

Year of publication: 2009

Format: 35mm

Color: color

Language : OF franz./arab. m. engl. UT

Duration: 90 Minuten

Direction: Ouahab, Djamel

Screenplay: Ouahab, Djamel

Camera: Ouahab, Djamel

Sound: Nouyrigat, Marc

Abstract

Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out four atmospheric nuclear tests and another thirteen underground ones to the South of Reggane (Algerian Sahara). The first was called Blue Jerboa and was four times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. For the first time, French and Tuareg survivors speak of their fight to have their illnesses recognized as such, and reveal in what the conditions the tests were carried out. Fifty years later, the French Army still refuses to acknowledge its responsibility towards the populations exposed to the radiation.