“The Battle of Algiers” – the Birth of the Post-Colonial Discourse

Krzysztof Loska

kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University (Poland)

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of Gillo Pontecorvo’s film The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Al­geri /1966/) written from the post-colonial perspective. Starting from the historical context and circumstances of the creation of the script, the author aims to show the manner in which the Italian director wanted to make a film politically engaged, presenting the fall of colonialism and the creation of the Algerian state, but also a timeless masterpiece, widely regarded as the model of a modern revolutionary drama, combining the poetics of a quasi-documentary, subordinated to the “dictatorship of the truth”, with a tense storyline, and a thoughtfully composed narrative and visual dimen­sion. On an ideological level Loska draws attention to the references to the writings of Frantz Fanon, in particular to his idea of colonial violence presented in The Wretched of the Earth. In the final parts of the text the author turns to the problem of the reception of the film and the debate between French film critics, who in their majority were opposed to the vision of the war for independence presented by the director.


Keywords:

postcolonialism, Gillo Pontecorvo, Frantz Fanon

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Published
2015-06-30

Cited by

Loska, K. (2015) “‘The Battle of Algiers’ – the Birth of the Post-Colonial Discourse”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (89-90), pp. 254–268. doi: 10.36744/kf.2339.

Authors

Krzysztof Loska 
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland

Prof. Uniwersytetu Jagielloń­skiego, dyrektor Instytutu Sztuk Audiowizualnych tamże; zajmuje się filmem japońskim i kulturą współczesną; autor ponad stu publikacji nauko­wych, w tym jedenastu książek, m.in.: Dziedzictwo McLuhana. Między nowoczesnością a ponowoczesnością (2001), Hitchcock autor wśród gatunków (2002), Encyklopedia filmu science fiction (2004), Poetyka filmu japońskiego (2009), Kenji Mizoguchi i wyobraźnia melodramatyczna (2012), Nowy film japoński (2013).

 



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