The Battle of Algiers(La battaglia di Algeri)

Arab struggles exploded onto the screen with Gillo Pontecorvo’s political-cinema powder keg. In the streets and back alleys of Algiers through the 1954-1962 Algerian War of Independence, cat-and-mouse action plays out between National Liberation Front guerrillas and the French soldiers tasked with suppressing them. Well-organised resistance, terrorist shocks and torture most vile escalate as the colonial power fails to win hearts and minds. The Italian-Algerian co-production dug deep on the newly independent North African state’s recent history, then rolled in newsreel style and non-professional actors for a raw and urgent edge-of-the-seat thriller.

Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion Best Film & FIPRESCI Prize