Battle for Algiers

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Movie
German title Battle for Algiers
Original title La battaglia di Algeri
Country of production Italy , Algeria
original language Arabic , English , French
Publishing year 1966
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Gillo Pontecorvo
script Gillo Pontecorvo
Franco Solinas
production Antonio Musu
Yacef Saadi
music Ennio Morricone
Gillo Pontecorvo
camera Marcello Gatti
cut Mario Morra
Mario Serandei
occupation

Battle of Algiers ( Arabic معركة الجزائر, DMG Maʿrakat al-Ǧazāʾir ; Original title: La Battaglia di Algeri ) is a film by the Italian director and journalist Gillo Pontecorvo . The black and white film, shot in 1966, focuses on an episode of the Algerian War of Independence against France from 1954 to 1962. The events between January and October 1957, when the French army and the Algerian nationalist rebel organization FLN met in the capital, Algiers , are considered the Battle of Algiers . In its realistic representation, the film is in the tradition of Italian neorealism .

Pontecorvo had previously carried out research in Algiers as a journalist together with Solinas. Even then he had a film project Paras (the abbreviation for paratroopers, French 'Parachutistes') in mind. When the Algerian producer and former leader of the FLN Yacef Saadi contacted him and other Italian directors like Francesco Rosi , he agreed on the condition of a strictly objective description.

action

The action takes place in Algiers in 1957. The units of the French army are commanded by Colonel Mathieu. In the winding old town, the kasbah , he hunts the originators of new FLN bombings, which are increasingly directed against civilians. The insurgents are commanded by Ali La Pointe, who rises as an assassin from petty criminal to head of resistance. The atrocities on both sides, such as the torture of suspects by the French and the FLN murders of “traitors”, are presented in an unvarnished manner.

background

The film is based on historical events from the beginning of the Algerian War. In 1957, the 10th French Paratrooper Division under General Jacques Massu tried to "clean" the Kasbah of Algiers of insurgents from the Algerian Liberation Front FLN. Previously, the FLN had begun several bomb attacks in September 1956 to relocate its main activity to Algiers. She expected attacks there to have a greater political impact. Among other things, an Air France office was affected. The French countermeasures were characterized by ruthless action against the Arab civilian population, the massive use of severe torture and extrajudicial executions of FLN suspects. This led to international protests and serious internal political conflicts in France. Prominent intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre publicly stated that the methods of French democracy were unworthy of French democracy. As a French doctrine , summarized by the officer Roger Trinquier in his military-theoretical book "La Guerre moderne", these measures are still a template for combating insurgents . Security forces and the military in many countries followed the French example. In particular, the dirty wars in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s were deliberately fought along the lines of the “Battle of Algiers”, with the film also being used as a teaching aid (see below).

Gillo Pontecorvo, who previously carried out six months of intensive research in Algiers, shot the film in its original locations four years after Algeria gained independence and cast most of the roles with amateur actors. The main character Brahim Hadjadj is an illiterate farmer whom Pontecorvo discovered by chance in the market. Only a portable camera could be used in the narrow streets of the Kasbah. The budget was about $ 800,000. The Algerian government sponsored the production. Co-producer Yacef Saadi (who founded Casbah Films in 1964) was involved in the fighting on the FLN side in 1957 and plays himself in the film.

One of the few regular actors is the French theater actor Jean Martin (* 1922). Because of his open opposition to the Algerian war - he signed the "Appeal of 121" in 1960, which called for the refusal of military service in Algeria - Martin had temporarily not got any roles in France.

The Battle of Algiers premiered in September 1966 at the Venice Film Festival . It was banned in France and England until 1971. Organizations like the Organization de l'armée secrète (OAS) also tried to prevent and sabotage performances in other countries . In some cases there were even violent attacks.

Opponents of the Vietnam War drew connections between Algeria and Southeast Asia. Film critic Andrew Sarris reported:

“Waves of applause broke out during the terrorist scenes against the French colonial power and during individual assassinations. (...) Sometimes there was cheering. ' Saigon next!' Shouted a man as the Algerians blew up a packed café in the French Quarter. "

In Latin American regimes the film was used to teach torture methods in the 1970s. As the journalist Marie-Monique Robin discovered, French officers with experience in Algeria also trained the Latin American security forces directly in the relevant torture techniques. In the US Army, which faced similar problems in Iraq with underground fighters who could hardly be distinguished from the population, the film has been shown to this day because of its realistic portrayal of the struggle of a regular Western occupying army against the guerrilla tactics of underground fighters. In 2004 it was also released in the USA and after a performance at the Cannes Festival in France.

Reviews

“The film makes no secret of its anti-colonial beliefs; but horrific and heartbreaking scenes of atrocity and retaliation are laudably balanced, depicting both sides of the conflict and its dire human cost. The film is gripping from start to finish. [...] He has lost none of his passionate power. "

- Angela Errigo

Ann Hornaday described the newly released film on the DVDs in the Washington Post of January 9, 2004 as "just as urgent, wise, intense and foreseeing as it was on the day it was first published"

“The Italian Gillo Pontecorvo broke new ground in documentary film with the" Battle of Algiers ". Pontecorvo, who studied chemist and journalist, reconstructed the gruesome fighting between Massus Paras and the Kasbah inhabitants, with mass scenes, terror and torture. Pontecorvo repeated the events veristically and historically precisely. He engaged laypeople who had taken part in the fighting, and the Algerian Yacef Saadi, once the organizer of the Kasbah uprising, played himself again. With a camera shaky at times, Pontecorvo also formally suggests Cinema verité. The French delegation had tried in vain to remove the film from the festival program; she stayed away from the performance in protest. "

- The Mirror (1966)

“A convincing documentary in the form of a feature film, outwardly sober and dispassionate, inwardly with unmistakable human and political commitment. A film worth seeing for those interested in politics. "

- Protestant film observer

Awards (selection)

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview Jean Martin at Arte http://www.arte.tv/de/film/Schlacht-um-Algier/671712,CmC=671464.html ( Memento from February 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ The Jakarta Post: Beatriz's War and us , December 21, 2014 , accessed December 22, 2014.
  3. ↑ Marie-Monique Robin: Death Squads - How France Exported Torture and Terror (Documentary, France 2003)
  4. ↑ In Le Monde on September 8, 2003 a performance at the Pentagon in August 2003 was reported ( archived copy ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )). The film has also been used for educational purposes for a long time.
  5. ↑ movie review from Ann Hornaday, quoted on www.rialtopictures.com ( Memento of 28 June 2007 at the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Venice. Male Arts. Festival . Der Spiegel No. 38 from September 12, 1966
  7. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 375/1970.