The Battle of Algiers
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Set in Algiers in the 1950s, The Battle of Algiers follows the escalating conflict between the French colonial authorities and the National Liberation Front (FLN) as Algeria's independence struggle intensifies. Colonel Philippe Mathieu, a paratrooper commander, is sent to crush the urban guerrilla campaign led by Ali La Pointe, a former petty criminal who has risen to become a key figure in the FLN. As both sides turn to increasingly extreme measures, the film traces the cycle of violence through the streets and neighbourhoods of the city, drawing on the recollections of Ali during his final hours. The story is based on the memoirs of Saadi Yacef, an FLN leader who produced the film and appears in it as El-Hadi Jaffar.
Gillo Pontecorvo directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Franco Solinas. It was the first of the four features he directed, made between Algeria and Italy, with a cast that mixes professional actors and non-professionals, including Brahim Hadjadj as Ali and Jean Martin as Mathieu. Its documentary-style shooting in the actual streets of Algiers gives the film a stark, observational quality, and it stands as a study of modern urban warfare and the tactics used to counter it.
The film holds an 8.1 rating on IMDb from around 75,000 votes and a 7.9 on TMDB from a smaller base, while critics have rated it 9.5 out of 10 across 95 reviews, placing it among the most highly regarded war dramas of its era.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the memoir book by Yazev Saadi — one of the leaders of the National Liberation Front, who produced the film and played himself in it.
- In France, the film was considered propaganda and banned from screening until the end of the decade.
- At the beginning of the American invasion of Iraq, a screening of the film was organized at the Pentagon as a documentary of guerrilla warfare in an Arab metropolis.
- The realistic depiction of the guerrilla movement made "The Battle of Algiers" a favorite film of various radical terrorist groups, including Andreas Baader (one of the founders and leaders of the German far-left terrorist organization "Red Army Faction") and the "Black Panthers" (an American far-left organization of Black people aiming to promote the civil rights of the Black population).
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