For My Country

For My Country (Pour la France, 2023) is a French drama you can watch online on iFILM. Aïssa, a young cadet of Algerian descent, dies during a brutal hazing ritual at Saint-Cyr, France's elite military academy.

Then a second battle begins, this one inside the family. The Army won't admit fault, and even the question of a soldier's funeral with full honors turns into a fight. Aïssa's older brother Ismaël, stubborn and hard to manage, struggles to hold everyone together while pushing to have his brother's death named for what it was. The film also slips back through the brothers' past, from Algeria to Taiwan, filling in why one chose to serve a flag that was never quite his and the other never could.

Director Rachid Hami drew the story from his own family's loss. Karim Leklou, Shaïn Boumedine and Lubna Azabal lead. A restrained, quietly furious film about grief, pride and the cost of belonging to a country that won't claim you. Stream For My Country (2023) online on iFILM.