The Algerian War was a mostly Islamic struggle that took place from 1954-1962 in North Africa against the occupying French forces. This film only spans through the first three years of that in which an organized group of rebels lead a serious of terrorist attacks in order to spawn revolution. The end product is one of the most powerful and moving pieces of political cinema yet made.
The Oscar nominated drama was created with an almost documentary-like feel to it. Only one of the many characters was a professional actor, and it was shot on location in the Casbah of Algiers in order to create as authentic an atmosphere as possible. Opening the film is a shot of four people huddled behind a false wall in a small house with the French army about to detonate the building. It focuses in on a young man named Ali, our hero, and it is his memory that tells the story.
The film is not so much about the history of the conflict as it is about the methods used to fight for freedom, and how the French government responded to it. There are daily stories now of suicide bombers in cafes and buses in the Middle East who die fighting for a cause, and I dismiss them as sick extremists without consciences that ought to be suppressed. Perhaps that is true, but this film shows the same types of people, people fighting for freedoms to practice their religion without the involvement of the West whose only methods are small acts of violence. Whether it is blowing up a discotheque filled with Parisian teens or stabbing a lone cop in the neck, the acts, though insignificant in and of themselves, accumulate and eventually someone begins to notice.
The Battle of Algiers takes us inside of the National Liberation Front where we see Ali as he joins their ranks and commits his acts of terrorism. But the story is not really about him. He might as well be nameless--I even think that might have been a stronger choice--because he is simply a focal point, a place to rest our eyes and see the events that unfold around him. Through him we see the importance of women who carry bombs hidden in their baskets or guns under their hijabs. We see an Islamic marriage, an unconventional attack against the European invaders. We see an old member of the FLN use her lighter skinned grandson as a way to help her pass a checkpoint out of the Islamic sector and into the French-controlled Algiers.
There are so many disturbing and beautiful scenes in this film it would take all day to address them. One in particular that struck me the first time that watched this and even more so this last time is a scene in which the checkpoints become too hazardous to cross anymore for Islamic women, so three of the lightest skinned FLN members dress as French ones. The camera sits in the room with them as they don their calf-revealing skirts, bleach their hair, apply their lipstick, and wait to be judged by the higher ranking members. As I watched them I asked myself what made them terrorists. They didn't look like people capable of killing entire rooms full of civilians, they look just like everyone else--but that is the point. One asks themselves how much a person is willing to endure before they snap and loose their frustration against their suppressors.
The film does not only focus on this side of the battle, though. On the French side we are introduced to the Col. Mathieu (Jean Martin, the only actor) as he leads his paratroopers in a fight to maintain the colony. The voice of reason and level-headed judgment in the film, Col. Mathieu says what needs to be said in the way it needs to expressed. He calls the resistance a "tapeworm." You must cut off the head or it will continue to live: "To know them is to eliminate them." Take away their anonymity and they have no power. When questioned about the torture used to obtain information in his Operation Champagne he simply asks the reporters whether or not they want to remain in Algeria. When no dissent is heard he dryly states that they must then accept the consequences in their entirety.
We do see torture. We do see dead children. We see acts so deplorable that one can not help but being moved to tears. Watch the final scenes and tell me that the passion and the anger and the hurt in those peoples' eyes does not make you feel ashamed and vengeful too. A ululation goes out...
4/4
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