Selected Documentaries, Movies, & Television Series on the Algerian War

Documentaries, Movies, and Television Series

 

It is the task of every student and teacher to analyze the listed documentaries, movies, and television series critically. Especially – but not only – some of the older productions in the chronologically organized overview are, according to contemporary standards, not politically correct, biased, and sometimes overtly racist and sexist.

We nevertheless included these films to foster important discussions in the classroom about the historical change in the construction and perception of war in film and its intersection with notions of class, race and gender. Therefore, all films need to be seen and studied critically as a reflection of the time of their production, including more recent movies. A good introduction into the study of the history of movies and critical film analysis is:

 

Especially interesting films for the subject of gender and war are marked with an *.

 

Documentaries

 

(Algeria, France, 1963) (55m)
Director: René Vautier

In 1962, the French film director René Vautier, together with some Algerian friends, organized an audiovisual formation center to encourage a “dialogue in images” between the two factions involved in the Algerian War (1954–62). A film was edited from that experience, but the French police partially destroyed it. The images that were saved represent an unprecedented historical document: They tell of the Algerian War and the history of the National Liberation Army (Armée de libération nationale, ALN), the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (Front de libération nationale, FLN). The footage shows life in Algeria after the war and particularly the reconstruction of the cities and the countryside after the conflict subsided.
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Wikipedia

 

(Algeria, 1978) (1h 55m)
Director: Assia Djebar

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. Lila is obsessed by memories of the War for Independence (1954–62) that defined her childhood. In dialogue with other Algerian women, she reflects on the differences between her life and theirs. In lyrical footage she contemplates the power of grandmothers who pass down traditions of anti-colonial resistance to their heirs. This documentary was the first by an Algerian woman on the Algerian War.
IMDb
Wikipedia site on Assia Djebar

 

(United Kingdom, 1992) (52m)
Director: Parminder Vir

Director Parminder Vir explores in this documentary the life situation of different generations of women in Algeria and their changing experiences during and after the Algerian War of Liberation (1954–62). The first generation of interviewed women identifies still as “Mudjahadines,” fighters, during the War of Independence from the French. They recall their own experiences, their hopes and their disillusion after the war, when the Algerian government refused to recognize their role and contribution to the National Liberation Movement (FLN). The second, younger generation of women, grew up after the Algerian War and struggle to carve a path between modern democracy and the fundamentalism of the Islamic faith.
IMDb
Women Make Movies site

 

(France, 2003) (58m)
Director: Amine Rachedi

This French and Arabic biographical documentary (with English subtitles), directed by Amine Rachedi explores the life and work of Louisette Ighilahriz (b. 1936), an Algerian writer and former member of the Front de libération nationale (FLN) during the Algerian War (1954–62). The film narrates the story of Ighilahriz, a young Algerian woman, who joined the FLN after her father was seized by French colonial authorities in the mid-1950s. As the film begins, she is finally concluding her 40-year search for a French military doctor known to her only as Commander Richaud, in order to express her gratitude to him for saving her life. When she and other Algerian resistance fighters were captured in a field in September of 1957, they were imprisoned and tortured by French troops for several months, until Commander Richaud discovered their condition. He provided the prisoners with immediate medical attention and transferred them to a French prison where they would be treated in accordance with international laws. Ighilahriz also discusses her difficulties adjusting to life after the revolution and reflects on the state of modern Algerian society.
IMDb
Wikipedia site on Louisette Ighilahriz

 

Movies
 

(France, 1960, released 1963) (1h 28m)
Director: Jean-Luc Godard

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 French intelligence to assassinate an agent of the National Liberation Front of Algeria (FLN) to prove he is not a double agent, but he instead dreams of escaping to Brazil with a pro-FLN woman, Véronica, played by Anna Karina. The film was banned in France until 1963 for its portrayal of torture, used by both sides in the war.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

(France, Italy, 1964) (1h 54m)
Director: Alain Cavalier

This French film L’Insoumis, directed by Alan Cavalier, was one of the first that dealt with the Algerian War (1954–62). Thomas Vlassenroot, a citizen of Luxembourg, played by Alain Delon, enlists in the French Foreign Legion after his divorce. He is posted to Algeria, but during the 1961 uprising he becomes disillusioned and deserts. While in hiding he receives a visit from his former lieutenant, who is also a defector but now works for the (Organisation Armée Secrète), a paramilitary group that fights Algerian Independence by using terrorist attacks. The lieutenant enlists Vlassenroot for the OAS, who agrees to kidnap a female lawyer representing Algerian nationalists. The film received a good deal of critical reception, and state censors insisted on a number of cuts which compromised the artistic integrity of the film.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

(Italy, Algeria, 1966) (2h 1m)
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo

Gillo Pontecorvo directed this classic, highly influential, and controversial film, whichfocuses on the early years of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62). The film tells the story of revolutionary fighter Ali La Pointe during the years between 1954 and 1957, when guerrilla fighters of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) regrouped and expanded into the Casbah, the citadel of Algiers. Their actions were stymied by French paratroopers attempting to regain territory. The highly dramatic film is about the organization of a guerrilla movement and the illegal methods, such as torture, used by the colonial power to contain it. Algeria succeeded in gaining independence from the French, which Pontecorvo addresses in the film's epilogue. The film was banned in France for five year after its release.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

(United States, France, 1966) (2h 9m)
Director: Mark Robson

The war drama Lost Command, directed by Mark Robinson and based on the best-selling 1960 novel The Centurions by Jean Lartéguy, explores France's loss of political control and military defeat in Indochina and Algeria through the eyes of a group of paratroopers. After suffering a humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu in the spring of 1954, Lt. Col. Pierre-Noel Raspeguy, played by Anthony Quinn, attempts to resurrect his reputation in Algeria. Loyalty among his group of paratroopers begins to fracture when one of them, an Algerian, joins the National Liberation Front (FLN). Others grow disillusioned with counter-insurgency measures against civilians and the overall French colonial project. The film was banned in France until 1970.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

(Algeria, 1975) (2h 57m)
Director: Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, this Algerian film, directed by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, shows how fighting against authoritarianism and fascism during World War II influenced the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62). A young peasant migrates from his drought-stricken village, only to be drafted by the French Army to fight in World War II. When he returns home, he finds that colonial rule has become more limiting and controlling. He joins in the revolt, with his son soon following  in his footsteps.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

(France, 1982) (1h 57m)
Director: Pierre Schoendoerffer

Pierre Schoendoerffer directs this riveting French courtroom drama, about  dead Captain Marcel Caron, played by Jacques Perrin, whose memory is publicly damaged by the historian Professor Paulet on TV, twenty years after his death. Captain Caron’s widow, played by Nicole Garcia, seeks to rehabilitate her husband's tarnished image after the Algerian War of Independence. (1954–62). She sues the historian to prove that her husband was not a murderer and did not practice torture while he was leading a ground unit during the Algerian War. The trial recreates the last two weeks of the life of the captain, serving as a larger metaphor to investigate and exonerate the French for committing human rights violations in the former colony.
Trailer
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Wikipedia

 

(France, Morocco, 2007) (1h 51m)
Director: Florent Emilio Siri

This film, based on the 1992 nonfiction book, La guerre sans nom (The Undeclared War) by the French historian Patrick Rotman, tells the story of Lieutenant Terrien (Benoît Magimel), a naïve and inexperienced army officer who volunteers for active service in the Algerian War (1954–62). Throughout the film, Lt. Terrien’s idealistic view of the war is shaped by his experiences and interactions with enemy forces, civilians, and his own platoon.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

(France, Algeria, 2010) (2h 19m)
Director: Rachid Bouchareb

Beginning with its controversial interpretation of the Setif massacre in 1945, in which French soldiers killed Algerians following riots and protests, Outside the Law, directed by Rachid Bouchareb, reveals how young Algerian men respond to colonialism. Three brothers who lost their father in the Setif massacre take different paths as they grow up under colonial French rule. Messaoud joins the French army fighting in Indochina; Abdelkader becomes a leader of the Algerian independence movement in France, and Saïd moves to Paris to make his fortune in the shady clubs and boxing halls of Pigalle. Gradually, their interconnecting destinies reunite them in the French capital, where freedom is a battle to be fought and won. The film was selected as one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, having been submitted by Algeria.
Trailer
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Wikipedia

 

(Algeria, 2012) (1h 47m)
Director: Said Ould Khelifa

Algeria’s entry for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film in 2013, Zabana!, directed by Said Ould Khelifa, focuses on Ahmed Zabana (1926-56), played by Imad Benchenni, an Algerian militant, who participated in the outbreak of the Algerian War in 1954. The film chronicles Zabana's fight to free his country to independence as a leading member of the National Liberation Front (FLN), his involvement in the Battle of Algiers in 1956, and his death at the hands of French authorities. He was executed by guillotine on June 19, 1956, in Algiers.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia
Wikipedia site on Ahmed Zabana

 

(France, 2014) (1h 50m)
Director: David Oelhoffen

Based on the 1957 novella, L'Hôte (The Guest), by Albert Camus, David Oelhoefen directs this story of two men on opposite sides of the Algerian War (1954–62) who find common ground. Daru, an Algerian-born French teacher of Spanish descent, (Viggo Mortensen), escorts Mohamed (Reda Kateb), a peasant accused of the murder of his cousin, through the Atlas Mountains during a harsh winter to hand him over to the French authorities as the Algerian War of Independence ignites. The two end up banding together to fight off villagers and colonists who have pursued them.
Trailer
IMDb
Wikipedia

 

Television Series
 

(United Kingdom, 1984) (5 episodes a 56m)
Director: Peter Batty

This five-part television series, directed by Peter Batty, for BBC Channel Four and Radio Télévision Belge Francophone on the Algerian War, documents the momentous struggle for independence from France by Algerian nationalists between 1954 and 1962. This eight-year conflict caused the fall of six French Prime Ministers and eventually the collapse of the Fourth Republic of France. It returned Charles de Gaulle to power but also almost brought about his demise. It twice brought civil strife to mainland France, as well as the fear of a military coup. It resulted in the deaths of at least one million Algerians and the exodus of as many European settlers. It was the last of the old style "colonial struggles" and the first of what would become the widespread wars of decolonization. It also marked the first practical application of what we today call counter-insurgency.
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