The Olive Trees of Justice was the first feature film by James Blue (1930-1980), the esteemed American independent documentary filmmaker (A Few Notes on Our Food Problem, The March on Washington, Kenya Boran) who worked in France and Algeria in the fifties and sixties. The Olive Trees of Justice, Blue's only full-length fiction film, had the distinction in 1962 of being the first American film to win the Critic's Prize at the Cannes Festival (the next was Apocalypse Now in 1979). Filmed in Algiers and the surrounding countryside during the crucial days of 1962, the film depicts the Algerian struggle for independence from the French by concentrating on a young Frenchman of Algerian descent (a “pied noir”) who returns to Algiers to visit his dying father. His memories of boyhood on his father's farm are told in flashbacks with a lush serenity that contrasts to the teeming, tank-filled streets of Algiers. In his study of the tensions between the Arab and French communities, Blue inevitably touches on issues of nationalism, colonialism and racism. But he approaches his subject through a powerfully realistic story of common people living and struggling in their own unique setting. A cast of non-professional actors includes Pierre Prothon as the son and Jean Pelegri, who wrote the novel, as the dying farmer.