Algerian Cinema

During the period of French colonization, motion pictures were transcendently a misleading publicity instrument for the French pioneer state. Albeit shot in Algeria and saw by the neighborhood populace, by far most of “Algerian” film in this period was made by Europeans.

The frontier promulgation films themselves for the most part portrayed a characteristically picture of peaceful life in the settlement, frequently zeroing in on a part of nearby culture that the organization looked to change,such as polygamy. One illustration of such a film is Albert Durec’s 1928 Le Désir. Well known French film shot or set in Algeria frequently repeated a large number of the sayings normal in organization supported films. For instance, L’Atlantide was a stunningly famous 1921 French-Belgian quiet film recorded in the Aurès Mountains, Djidjelli, and Algiers in what was then French Algeria.Although not expressly about Algeria, the film (itself in view of a well known book) portrays two French Foreign Legion officials and their relationship with the licentious sovereign of an imaginary Saharan realm. Probably the earliest film to draw in with the French presence in North Africa, the film underlines not just the sentiment and exoticism of the endeavor, yet additionally European tensions over their job in Africa and the conceivably perilous impacts of between racial contact. Different movies with comparative topics followed, including Le Bled (1929), Le Grand Jeu (1934), and La Bandera (1935).

European control of the method for realistic creation finished in the beginning of the Algerian War, when a few Algerian patriots from the National Liberation Army (ALN) got essential film-production gear which they used to make four short projects. These movies were screened by means of a hand-off framework to watchers in an assortment of thoughtful communist countries. Their substance upheld the developing patriot disobedience, including the spot of ALN emergency clinics and a Mujahideen assault on the French mines of the Société de l’Ouenza.

Algeria turned into a free country in 1962, a theme which collected weighty consideration among Algerian film creations of the 1960s and 1970s.

Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina‘s canonical 1967 film The Winds of the Aures depicts a rural farming family whose lives are destroyed by colonialism and war. The plot depicts the tragic plight of a mother who leaves her home in the Aurès mountains of eastern Algeria to search desperately for her son, a nationalist who has followed in his father’s footsteps but been captured by the French army. Symbolically, the film uses the family to represent the fate of the nation: impoverished, exploited, but struggling to be free. The film won an award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival for Best First Work.

Outside of Algeria, one of the most famous films of this era is The Battle of Algiers (1966), an Algerian-Italian film that obtained three Oscar nominations.

Other examples of Algerian cinema from this era include Patrol in the East (1972) by Amar Laskri, Prohibited Area (1972) by Ahmed Lallem, The Opium and the Stick (L ‘Opium et le Bâton ) (1970) by Ahmed Rachedi, Palme d’Or-winner Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975) by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, and Costa Gavras’ Oscar-winning Z. A notable French-Algerian documentary about the aftermath of the war is the 1963 Peuple en marche.

Along with decolonization and the Algerian War, the plight of urban youth is another common theme. One example of this theme is Merzak Allouache’s Omar Gatlato.

Several comedy stars also emerged, including the very popular Rouiched, star of Hassan Terro or Hassan Taxi. In addition, Hadj Abderrahmane – better known under the pseudonym of the Inspector Tahar – starred in the 1973 comedy The Holiday of The Inspector Tahar directed by Musa Haddad. The most famous comedy of this period is Carnaval fi dechra directed by Mohamed Oukassi, and starting Athmane Ariouet.

Algerian cinema slumped in the mid-1980s, and major productions became rare. Some attribute this fact to the state’s unwillingness to subsidize Algerian film. There were a few success, including Mohamed Oukassi’s 1994 comedy Carnival fi Dachra, filmed in Maghrebi Arabic and following the story of a man who runs for mayor of his village (or “dachra”) only to be seduced by power and seek to become the president of Algeria. Director Merzak Allouache’s Athmane Aliouet and “Salut Cousin!” (1996) are two other examples of Algerian comedies produced in this era.

Somecharacterize contemporary Algerian cinema to be in a rebuilding phase. The recent trend has been an increase of Francophone cinema, as opposed to films in Algerian Arabic. Some attribute this to the Francophone market encouraged by increased immigration to France in the 1990s. For example, Franco-Algerian productions such as Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside the Law have met with great success (and controversy).

 

References:

“Table 8: Cinema Infrastructure – Capacity”. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
“Table 11: Exhibition – Admissions & Gross Box Office (GBO)”. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
Delporte, Christian (2000). France at War in the Twentieth Century: Propaganda, Myth, and Metaphor. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571817013.
Abel, Richard (1984). French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929. Princeton University Press.
Slavin, David Henry (2001). Colonial Cinema and Imperial France, 1919–1939: White Blind Spots, Male Fantasies, Settler Myths. JHU Press. p. 35.
Spaas, Lieve (2001). Francophone Film: A Struggle for Identity. Manchester University Press. pp. 135–6.
“Festival de Cannes: The Winds of the Aures”. festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
Report on the audiovisual and film sector in Algeria by Euromed Audiovisual and the European Audiovisual Observatory