In April 1961, in the Aurès mountains of Algeria, a hunting commando made up of Breton conscripts confronts a group from the National Liberation Army and captures an Algerian prisoner. A French soldier, wounded in the clash and a schoolteacher in civilian life, recalls the events he experienced with his comrades over the past months: their opposition to the Algerian war led them to a camp reserved for draft resisters. He remembers how their commanding officer managed to turn them, from young anti-militarist Bretons, into fearsome fellagha hunters — ready to kill, and even starting to enjoy it. All of them, except him, gradually give in to the escalating violence. Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès, is a fictional work based on eight hundred hours of recordings of French conscripts during the Algerian war.