HST 219 Lecture Notes - Messali Hadj, Gillo Pontecorvo, Ferhat Abbas
Document Summary
Was made by an italian director with the full support of the algerian government. Neo-realist: when you look at the screen it looks like found footage, news reel footage. Used hand held cameras, black and white, use of jump cuts and the casting of virtual unknowns. Film was shot on location in algiers and in some of the actual places that the events happened. There was only 1 actual actor cast in the film, jean martin played colonel le mathieu. One of the most peculiar casting choices was a man who had actual experience in the. Battle of algiers and he played himself in the movie. Actors delivered their lines in the most understated way. Film is extremely provocative, was not screened in mainland france until 1971. In 1847 french had defeated algerian resistance, but pockets of resistance still existed. Along with tunisia became a french colony. Algeria, like south africa, was conceived as a settler colony.
