Maiden Voyage Pictures  



The Battle Of Algiers

The action begins at dawn on October 7, 1957. An old Algerian nationalist, under torture, reveals to Colonel Mathieu the hiding place of the last surviving guerrilla leader, Ali-la-Pointe. Mathieu's paratroops surround the house in the Casbah, ready to blow it up unless Ali surrenders. From the pensive faces of the four freedom fighters within, we flash back to November 1, 1954, when a message from the National Liberation Front had launched The Battle of Algiers.

After this prologue, we follow the three-year history of the Battle. Terrorism escalates on both sides. A harmless Arab worker is accused of killing a policeman and in retaliation the French place a bomb near his home in the Casbah, killing many innocent people. In return, three Arab women disguised as Europeans penetrate the heavily guarded French sector, wreaking havoc with bombs in two cafes and at the Air France terminal.

But the elite French paratroopers, with their vastly superior resources and training and the ruthless use of torture, systematically destroy the Algerian guerrilla movement, cell by cell. When they finally arrest the intellectual Ben M'Hidi and the key leader Ali Kader, only Ali-la-Pointe remains.

We return to October 7, 1957. Ali-la-Pointe dies and the Battle of Algiers ends, a victory for the French. But three years later the revolutionary phoenix rises again in the Casbah, leading to Algeria's independence in 1962.


The Battle Of Algiers Synopsis


Directed By: Gillo Pontecorvo
Starring: Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Saadi Yacef
More about the cast and crew
Certificate: 15
Language: French / English / Arabic
Length: 121 minutes
Subtitles: Yes