The read
It runs a compact 1h 25m.
Synopsis
This excellent feature-length documentary - the story of the imperialist colonization of Africa - is a film about death. Its most shocking sequences derive from the captured French film archives in Algeria containing - unbelievably - masses of French-shot documentary footage of their tortures, massacres and executions of Algerians. The real death of children, passers-by, resistance fighters, one after the other, becomes unbearable. Rather than be blatant propaganda, the film convinces entirely by its visual evidence, constituting an object lesson for revolutionary cinema.
Ratings
IMDb6.4/10
7 audience votes
Key crew
- Ahmed RachediDirector
- Mouloud MammeriWriter
- Ahmed RachediWriter
- René VautierWriter
Cast
- Mouloud MammeriNarrator (voice)
- Mohamed ChouikhCast
- René VautierCast
- Ahmed RachediCast
- Mazouz Ould-AbderrahmaneCast
- Sid Ahmed AgoumiCast
- Salah TeskoukCast
- Samia MezianeCast
- Mahdia MagroufelCast
- Hamou SaadaouiCast
- Daniel BoukmanCast
Stills
Themes
africacolonialismalgeriastruggle for independenceanti-colonialismmaghrebindependance war