050 - Battle of Algiers

Synopsis: Drama-documentary of the FLN uprising in Algiers in the 1950's

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo

Actors: Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Haggiag

Date: 1965

How viewed: Already in my collection

Rating: 5/5

David Meyer says:
It's a revolutionary film in form and content. There are no comparable films being made today, films that combine history with drama and make both so compelling. 

I say:

I can't praise this film too highly, and it's a compete travesty that it is in anyone's list of 'DVDs you've never heard of'. It follows the emergence of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1952 against the colonising French, and their subsequent virtual elimination by the French Army. It's worth knowing a bit of the history, though the film doesn't directly provide this information - anyway (with thanks as usual to Wikipedia): The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements between 1954 and 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An important decolonisation war, it was a complex conflict characterised by guerrilla warfare, marquis fighting, terrorism against civilians, the use of torture on both sides and counter-terrorism operations by the French Army. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerians who believed in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian Muslim counterparts. The extraordinary thing about this film is that it does not use any images from the conflict - everything is re-enacted. It's shot in grainy black and white to look like a documentary, and the crowd scenes, riots, explosions, etc are unbelievably realistic. It's not always an easy film to watch, both sides commit atrocities and these are shown in graphic detail (including torture scenes, although these may only be in the restored version of the film). Impressively the film tries to be neutral, and depicts aspects of good and bad on both sides (for example, the Army leader fought in the French resistance and therefore has some sympathy with the fight against a colonising country), and my only gripe is that the ending is shown as the first scene - why oh why?? Nevertheless, it is gripping viewing, and very topical as it has many resonances with the current Arab Spring uprisings, and, for me, has the effect of making almost every other film feel superficial. PS and there's a fantastic score by Ennio Morricone - what more could you ask?