The Colonel

In 1993 France, the retired Colonel Raoul Duplan is shot in his home, leaving the case puzzling for the police. Galois, a young army officer, is brought in to assist the investigation and uncover the truth behind the attack.

Shortly after the shooting, Galois receives a letter that contains diary pages from Lieutenant Guy Rossi. Rossi had served in 1955-1957 during the Algerian War under Duplan and disappeared in 1957. The diary promises insights into the Colonel's conduct and Rossi's own experiences.

Galois reads Rossi's diary and discovers an ambivalent relationship between Rossi and Duplan. The entries describe Duplan's harsh methods and Rossi's discomfort with them. The pages frame a moral tension at the heart of the investigation.

The film cuts to black-and-white flashbacks of Rossi's service in Algeria, revealing the harsh environment and the pressures that shaped his choices. He witnesses violence and military campaigns that blur the line between peacekeeping and brutality.

Rossi witnesses torture and public executions as part of the war's brutal tactics. He is torn between a desire for peace and revulsion at the methods used to secure it. These memories haunt him as the diary unfolds.

Rossi accidentally reveals information to a friend who sympathizes with the rebels, a lapse that may have led to the murder of a shopkeeper who helped the French. The consequences of his disclosure weigh on him and foreshadow later revelations.

Duplan orders Rossi to command a firing squad, but Rossi decides to disobey his superior. The act signals a turning point in Rossi's loyalty and foreshadows the diary's hidden truth about Duplan's tactics.

Rossi reveals that he left the diary with a trusted friend with the intended final recipient being his father. He feared for his life and hoped the truth would reach his kin. The diary thus becomes a chain of custody that stretches into the present.

A recent TV appearance of Colonel Duplan prompts Rossi's friend to deliver the diary to Rossi's father. The timing links the past to the present and intensifies Galois's investigation.

Galois confronts Rossi's father with the diary's contents, and he does not resist admitting that he has been sending the diary and orchestrating its delivery. His confession recontextualizes Rossi's actions and the war's moral cost.

The father explains that he killed the shopkeeper who helped the French because Duplan had shown no remorse for Rossi's supposed murder. Duplan merely labels Rossi as a traitor to justify the violence. This motive reveals the deeper corrupt dynamic at play.

Galois, still an army officer, realizes she lacks the authority to arrest Rossi's father. The system's boundaries prevent her from pursuing justice in the moment, leaving the truth unresolved.

As Galois drives away from the confrontation, she appears moved by what she has learned. The film ends with unresolved questions about guilt, duty, and the costs of war.

Rather than returning to the office, Galois opts to have lunch with her commanding officer, signaling a personal turn in her understanding of duty, authority, and the human consequences of the case.