Based on rare, restored and colourised archive footage, C'était la guerre d'Algérie is a no-holds-barred film from a human perspective. All the taboos of this 'war without a name' will be tackled: the taboos of French colonisation and its unfulfilled promises; but also the taboos of a little-known Algerian history, with its victors and its victims... From the Sétif massacres in May 1945 to independence in July 1962.