The Battle of Algiers documents the Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. November 1, 1954, a message from the National Liberation Front launches The Battle of Algiers. As we follow the three-year history of the Battle, violence 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. Three Arab women disguised as Europeans penetrate the heavily guarded French sector, wreaking havoc with bombs in two cafes and at the Air France office. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents and systematically destroy the Algerian guerilla movement, cell by cell.
Used as a training film by the Black Panthers, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS provides a powerful portrait of anti-colonial struggle and tactics in 1950s North Africa.
