Almost seven years before the atrocities of 9/11, an Air France plane was hijacked in Algiers by four terrorists on behalf of the Armed Islamic Group. Their destination: Paris. Their target: the Eiffel Tower.

This film recreates the events that took place, as well as how the French government decided to handle the situation.

There's a disturbing sense of ease surrounding how four terrorists managed to board Flight 8969 on the tarmac of Algiers Airport, destined for Paris, in December, 1994. With a plane full of hostages, they managed to make the French government sit up and take notice of their demands.

The terrorists inform the authorities that they want two of their comrades released, but their agenda went much farther than that.

Like most governments, the French aren't ones to bend over backwards for terrorists, and swiftly deploy their Special Forces team to bring this awkward political hot potato to a safe conclusion.

Stop or I'll shoot! Stop I say! Oh wait, my bad, it was me moving all along. How embarrassing!

But although films portray these types of scenarios on the silver screen as nothing short of glamorous and exciting, real life terrorism threats are far more deadly.

French director Julien Leclercq treats his subject matter with utmost respect – perhaps too much. For the most part it plays out like an overly long re-enactment of events, the kind of which that are often used in documentaries. It doesn't actually get edgy until the last segment that contains the brutal conclusion.

Up until then he fills the time with slightly dull political conversations that fail to bring any sense of tension to proceedings. Even worse, he focuses on one member of the Special Ops team, who has a worried wife and child back home, praying for his safe return. This relationship is delivered in such a cliché fashion, that it would probably make the producers of Hallmark films of the week blush. It all may well of happened just like that, but it makes for a bland filmic representation.

He does, however, try something different visually at least. The colours are so muted throughout that it often looks like a black and white film. It works as an interesting palette for the screen, but it also ages the film somewhat – as black and white tends to – making it appear that these events took part in the late seventies/early eighties, rather than 1994.

There's no denying that the actual event was a taut and tense experience, but Leclercq fails to translate these high-risk thrills to the screen successfully. It works well as a historical aid, but sadly nothing more than that.