The Battle of Algiers
Martin Evans, Professor of Modern History at University of Sussex.
Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 film The Battle of Algiershas an iconic status in the film canon. Nominated for two Oscar Awards, winner at the Venice and Acapulco Film Festivals, his gritty depiction of the Algerian struggle against colonialism led Edward Said to describe it ‘the great 1960s film.’ Why? Because for Said the film, ‘not only represented a fairly recent and stirring triumph of insurgency against one of the old empires but also because its spirit was full of resourceful revolutionary optimism, even though violence was at the core of the film.’ It was also, in Said’s opinion, highly inspirational, influencing a whole generation of directors, from India to Latin America and the Middle East.
Pontecorvo himself was Jewish-Italian and firmly on the left. Born in Pisa in 1919 he was a prominent member of the Italian anti-Fascist Resistance. An activist in the Italian Communist Party, he split with the Party over the Soviet intervention in Hungary in 1956. Thereafter he remained on the left and was a committed anti-colonialist. It was this anti-colonial sentiment which attracted him to making a film about the Algerian War which ever since has exerted an enormous cinematic and political influence.
The Battle of Algiers is still the prism through which Algeria is understood, particularly beyond Algeria and France. It has also been a blue print for armed revolution, used as a training film from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to the Black Panthers. And since 9/11 it is a film which, through its portrayal of terrorism and counter-terrorism, is seen to speak to the contemporary world. Indeed in 2002 President Georges Bush was shown the film as a lesson in how to win militarily but lose politically.
The articles in our collection explore the many facets of this remarkable film. Starting with its relationship to the actual events, they trace its genesis, its production and its subsequent impact.
