I'm always a sucker for films about the tortured history of modern Algeria. I own the Criterion DVD of The Battle of Algiers, and went to see Oct. 17, 1961 at TIFF a few years ago.

So I put down Algeria: Untold Stories (Algérie, histoires à ne pas dire) as one of my secondary picks in the TIFF ticket lotto.

You know you're in trouble when the programmer starts out by cautioning that this is a movie primarily made for Algerians (the director is Jean-Pierre Lledo, an Algerian-born Frenchman).

More to the point, it seems to be made for Algerians in their late 60s and beyond.  Lledo's movie is akin to listening to a elderly relative who may have lived through interesting times but tragically, has no ability to spit out an interesting story about them.

The film is supposedly 155 minutes long, which means I bailed with about five minutes left. But I couldn't take any more rambling, pointless reminiscing (that's only the second time I've bailed on a TIFF screening in the six years I've seen films at the festival). Despite its length, the film only touches on the absolutely savage Islamic insurgency of the 1990s (al Qaeda's been busy there lately) or how the country got to that point from July 5, 1962 -- the day it won independence from France. I found that bizarre.

Without irony, one young Algerian man sitting on some steps tells one of Lledo's interview subjects that the past is past and she should talk about modern times. Lledo, you should have listened to him.

There are some insights (but few answers) in the film. However, unless Lledo edits this sucker down to about 90 minutes or otherwise makes a version for non-Algerians without infinite attention spans, stay far, far away (it screens again on Saturday). I would make an exception to that edict if you're an elderly, nostalgic Algerian. Then, who knows? You might be moved to hold up a lighter at the end.