Drama · War · History
Italian (La battaglia di Algeri)
1966 · Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo · 122 min
Algiers, the late 1950s: a clandestine independence movement takes root in the Casbah, and French authorities answer with escalating force. Shot in the manner of a newsreel, the film follows both sides of a city at war with itself.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of political cinema and the late Italian neorealist tradition, it fixed the visual language of the pseudo-documentary war film and remains a reference point in debates about insurgency and counterinsurgency.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a fiction that deliberately imitates documentary, and ask what that imitation makes you believe.
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