Synopsis
The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri, 1966) is Gillo Pontecorvo's war drama, ready to watch online on iFILM. The Casbah, late 1950s. A French paratroop colonel methodically dismantles the resistance while a cornered Ali la Pointe looks back on his path from petty thief to insurgent leader.
The handheld camera stays so close to the crowds that viewers have mistaken the film for newsreel — yet not a single frame is documentary footage. Pontecorvo refuses to flatter either side: fighters of the National Liberation Front plant bombs in cafés and the streets of the European quarter, and the army answers with sweeps, checkpoints and torture in the interrogation room. Jean Martin, the only trained actor on screen, plays Colonel Mathieu; the rest of the cast were locals, many of whom had lived through the fighting.
The film took the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and later landed three Oscar nominations. For decades it was studied by guerrilla movements and counter-insurgency staffs alike — a rare case of a movie serving as a manual on both sides of the wire. If you want to see how an urban insurgency works from the inside, stream The Battle of Algiers (1966) online on iFILM.
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