Albert Camus The Guest

The Guest by Albert Camus

Before there were movies and films there were stories and books. Many film creators will base their movies on written stories, and although they tend to keep the main premise of the plot, setting, characters, point of view and theme the same, sometimes the details will differ. To elaborate on these subjects we can compare the short story written by Albert Camus called The Guest published in 1957 to the short film production created by Michael Williams for his film school thesis project that depicts the story in a slightly different light.

Both versions centre around 3 characters, Daru, Balducci and the Arab. Balducci is a Gendarme from El Ameur brining an Arab prisoner to Daru to bring him to the police headquarters
Daru immediately refuses to bring the prisoner there because he doesn't believe it is his job to do so. In the written story Balducci makes it very clear he will not be the one to give away Daru but he's not going to deny he gave the prisoner to him. In the film Balducci is a lot more aggressive about Daru bringing the prisoner to Tinguit. He explains that it will be seen as an act of treason if he does not and that can be punishable by death. He also explains that the prisoner is going to jail because he killed his cousin with a sheep hook over grain. After Balducci leaves Daru ponders over his decision while he tries to figure out what kind of man the Arab is. After being unsuccessful in making a decision Daru and The Arab go to sleep. During the night the Arab sneaks out of the school house and Daru believes he has left for good. In the short story he also believes he hears other foot steps around the school house which is not depicted in the film. When Daru wakes up the Arab is back in his bed which frustrates Daru because he's back to making the decision. Daru and the Arab get ready to walk, they set off on the route to Tinguit. About an hour into walking Daru turns to the Arab and hands him a bag filled with food and 1000 francs. He tells the Arab one way goes to Tinguit and one way goes somewhere he would be relativity safe. In
self. Daru is forced to make a decision between taking the prisoner to his almost certain death in Tinguit or set him free even though he is guilty. The short story does a much better job at depicting this conflict because it goes more in-depth into Daru's mind. You get to see how he think and how he feels about the Arab. In the film you don't really get to understand how Daru is feeling, you can only understand how he is feeling by his facial expressions and tone of voice. The point of view in this story is third person limited Omniscient which means it is told by a third person narrator but can accesses the thoughts and feelings of one character, in this case