Films about the Cold War and Wars of Decolonization
This collection provides information on selected movies, TV productions and documentaries on the themes of gender, military and war in the period covered by the Oxford Handbook.
The most important wars for this period include:
- Cold War (1946–91)
- Arab-Israeli Conflicts (1947ff)
- War of Indonesian Independence (1945–49)
- Korean War (1950–53)
- African Wars for Independence (1952ff)
- Algerian War (1954–62)
- Indochina Wars (1946–79)
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After twenty-seven long months spent in Algeria, Frédéric Simon, a young French photographer, is determined to forget this time of trouble and is determined to live a good life after the army discharges him. At first, things go according to his...
From the first attacks of November 1954 to Algerian independence in 1962, this landmark documentary disrupts familiar narratives of the Algerian conflict by presenting it through eyewitness testimony previously unavailable to the public and...
This documentary focuses on the experiences of French veterans of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The memories of two dozen veterans provide anguished and honest accounts of a conflict that had yet to be called a war by their nation...
This documentary, directed by the Algerian writer and filmmaker, Assia Djebar (1936–2015), tells the story of a woman who returns to her native region 15 years after the end of the Algerian War for Independence (1954-1962). Lila is obsessed by...
The Algerian War came within the framework of a very special era of decolonization, soon after the Second World War and the loss of Indochina, as well as of the Cold War tension which led the French army to see the hands of Communism behind the...
Based on the 1958 controversial memoir by Henri Alleg, La Question highlights the role of torture in the Algerian War for Independence (1954-1962). The film recounts Alleg's detention and torture by French officials.
This Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Language Film explores the psychological trauma of war in Andean women, particularly one young girl, in modern-day Peru. Fausta has a mythical disease called the milk of sorrow, passed down through her mother's...
Lieutenant Roque attempts to bridge suspicions and tensions among a diverse group of soldiers under his command, including French nationals, French born in North Africa, and native Algerians, during the Algerian War of Independence. The film...
A documentary detailing the consequences of the Algerian War for two groups: the harkis, native Algerians who served on the side of France for diverse reasons, and the pieds noirs, colonists of European descent. Neither were welcome in...
1967. The world is alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles, music and an infectious sense of hope. In Jordan, a different kind of change is underway as tens of thousands of refugees pour across the border from Palestine....
This French New Wave drama reveals the political instability that engulfed France during the Algerian War of Independence. A son of an industrialist joins a right-wing, nationalist terrorist organization (loosely resembling the OAS) but is soon...
This film memorializes the wars of de-colonization in Vietnam and Algeria by offering a romantic view of a disgraced French military officer. Known as the "Crabe-Tambour" (Drummer-Crab), Lt. Willsdorff inspires his men with his tenacity and love...
This 1960 film, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, follows a Frenchman named Bruno Forestier, played by Michel Subor, who lives in Geneva during the Algerian War (1954–62) to escape enlistment. Forestier is nevertheless ordered by his superiors in...
One of the earliest mainstream French films that addressed the Algerian War (1954-1962). A private has no desire to serve in Algeria, and tries to call in a favor to avoid being drafted.
August 1957: A famous writer in his forties, Jacques Cormery, visits his mother who lives in Algiers. The city is undergoing the urban warfare of the Battle of Algiers during the Algerian War of Independence. Cormery reflects on his school years...
The poet and radio personality Jean Sénac was a pied-noir (European colonist) who chose to stay in Algeria after its independence in 1962, strongly attached to the country he was born and raised in. Ten years later, he was under surveillance by...
In this critically acclaimed drama, director Samuel Moaz offers an innovative take of the Lebanon War 2006 partly informed by his own experiences as an Israeli soldier. Set inside an armored tank, a small crew of soldiers enters a devastated but...
Director Mahmoud Zemmouri, an Algerian émigré, offers a satirical perspective of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The story takes place in a small town of Algeria in the two last years of the war. Boualem and Sahah, two young...
Two young French lovers' lives are altered by the Algerian War for Independence (1954–1962). Geneviève learns she is pregnant from her love affair with Guy, who has been drafted into the war. She agrees to marry a rich man to giver her child a...
Four French adolescents transition to adulthood and discover their sexualities at the end of Algerian War for Independence. Serge, an Algerian immigrant, seduces his classmate François and tries to do the same to Maïté, François's best friend and...