The Battle of Algiers

La battaglia di Algeri

Director/Gillo Pontecorvo

A reconstruction of the urban insurrection in the Casbah of Algiers between 1954 and 1957 and of the French army response. Shot in black and white in a newsreel register, it lays out both mechanics in parallel: the clandestine cell organised in sealed compartments, and the military apparatus that dismantles it through systematic torture. It is still screened at military and intelligence academies as a case study in urban counterinsurgency.