In 1964, at the age of 29, the exceptional talent had already achieved star status. That year he played the role of Thomas Vlassenroot, a young Luxembourger who fought in Algeria as part of the French Foreign Legion. After the Algerian coup, the young soldier becomes a deserter and tries everything to return to his homeland, Luxembourg.
After a journey marked by fierce conflicts, the severely wounded legionnaire finally manages to reach his family farm, where he dies.
Directed by Alain Cavalier, this auteur film marked Alain Delon’s desire to make a name for himself in the field of committed cinema and to try his hand at film production for the first time. Controversial at the time, «The Hell of Algiers» ranks 19th among the best films by Alain Delon on the specialized website Allocine.
His image has also been used in pop culture, as the final scene of Alain Delon, dead in Luxembourg, was used for the cover of The Smiths’ album “The Queen Is Dead” (1986).
However, the feature film was not shot in the Grand Duchy, but in Marseille, Lyon and a studio in the Paris region.
