The Battle of Algiers(1966)
dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Studied by insurgents and the Pentagon alike.
Where to watch: Streaming on Criterion ChannelLetterboxd ↗
Docudrama reconstruction of the FLN's urban guerrilla campaign against French colonial rule in Algiers, shot in a deliberately newsreel-like style with mostly non-professional actors.
Why it’s here
Reconstructed with a documentary's texture and an insurgency's actual tactics — studied for decades by both sides of colonial conflict, reportedly including the Pentagon itself ahead of the Iraq occupation. A rare case of a film about power becoming an actual tactical document, not just a representation of one.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Algeria
- Topics
- algerian war
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon
The bible of decolonization, written by a psychiatrist.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles
Three Americans walk into the Sahara. Not all return.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Capitalism and Slavery
Eric Williams
Slavery didn't fund empire. Slavery WAS empire.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
The colonizer’s real weapon was the classroom.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Discourse on Colonialism
Aimé Césaire
Europe called it civilization. Césaire called it what it was.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Hind Swaraj
Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi argues that modern civilization itself is the problem.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Walter Rodney
Africa isn't poor. It was made poor.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Noli Me Tangere
José Rizal
The novel a colony banned and then followed.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST