Fifty Years of the Battle of Algiers

Past As Prologue

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by Sohail Daulatzai

Type

Studies

Subject

One Film > The Battle of Algiers

Keywords

Gillo Pontecorvo, colonialism

Publishing date

2016

Publisher

University of Minnesota Press

Collection

Forerunners: Ideas First

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 104 pages
5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 18 cm)

ISBN

978-1-5179-0238-4

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Book Presentation:
The Battle of Algiers, a 1966 film that poetically captures Algerian resistance to French colonial occupation, is widely considered one of the greatest political films of all time. With an artistic defiance that matched the boldness of the anticolonial struggles of the time, it was embraced across the political spectrum—from leftist groups like the Black Panther Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization to right-wing juntas in the 1970s and later, the Pentagon in 2003. With a philosophical nod to Frantz Fanon, Sohail Daulatzai demonstrates that tracing the film’s afterlife reveals a larger story about how dreams of freedom were shared and crushed in the fifty years since its release. As the War on Terror expands and the “threat” of the Muslim looms, The Battle of Algiers is more than an artifact of the past—it’s a prophetic testament to the present and a cautionary tale of an imperial future, as perpetual war has been declared on permanent unrest.
Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

About the Author:
Sohail Daulatzai is associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. He is author of Black Star, Crescent Moon.

See the publisher website: University of Minnesota Press

See The Battle of Algiers (1966) on IMDB ...