The Assault

Julien LeClercq directs this French thriller based on real events. On Christmas Day 1994, seven years before 9/11, a group of four heavily-armed men from the Algerian Armed Islamic Group hijack an Air France flight bound for Paris. However, when the aircraft stops to refuel at Marseille, it is stormed by the French GIGN (the elite counter-terrorism paramilitary unit of the French National Gendarmerie).

The film tells the story through three characters involved in the crisis: GIGN squad leader Thierry (Vincent Elbaz), who is struggling to balance his all-consuming work with becoming a new father, terrorist group leader Yahia (Aymen Saidi), who finds justification for his actions through his frequent and fervent prayers, and Carole (Melanie Bernier), a French Interior Ministry employee who must overcome the condescension of her male colleagues to prove that the hijackers really are on a suicide mission.