The Battle of Algiers [La Battaglia di Algeri] ***** (1965, Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Tommaso Neri, Semia Kerbash, Michelle Kerbash) – Classic Movie Review 5093

Director Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1965 film is a masterly reconstruction in CinemaScope of violent events in Algiers from 1954 to 1957, with an intense personal tale about a petty criminal (Brahim Haggiag [Hadjadj]) recruited into the terrorists’ revolt against the French forces led by Colonel Mathieu (Jean Martin).

It was the winner of the Golden Lion, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Award of the City of Venice at the Venice Film Festival in 1966 and it was Oscar nominated as Best Foreign Language Film in 1967 and for Best Director and for Best Original Story and Screenplay, and it won the UN Award at the Baftas in 1972.

Director Pontecorvo successfully integrates mostly non-professional actors with real-life participants, and, avoiding the easy way of using newsreels, builds up a wealth of telling information in this remarkably powerful, propaganda-led drama-documentary.

Vibrant, urgent and in your face, it has lost none of its potency, as a 1997 re-release and a new 2017 restoration amply show.

Marco Pontecorvo, the director’s son, oversaw the look of the new restoration, which receives its first big screen showing in the UK at London’s Ciné Lumière on 5 March 2017.

Also in the cast are Yacef Saadi (who plays Djafar), Tommaso Neri, Semia Kerbash, and Michelle Kerbash.

The film runs 121 minutes. It is written by Gillo Pontecorvo and Franco Solinas, based in part on the memoirs of Yacef Saadi, who wrote them in prison after serving as a leader for the historical NLF. It is shot in black and white by Marcello Gatti, is produced by Antonio Sci and Yacef Saadi, and is scored by Ennio Morricone and Gillo Pontecorvo.

Because of its pro-Algerian politics, the film wasn’t released in France until 1971, and the torture scenes used by the French were cut in the US and UK.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5093

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