The Battle of Algiers

 

I am glad I watched this. I am pleased to be able to say I have seen it. 

It was very intense- I can see why people mistake it for documentary. The torture scenes are harrowing even though they are brief. The broken informant whose interogation the film begins with, there is so much grief and loss here. The boy beaten at the race track unlucky enough to be a convient scapegoat, the pretty young dancers at the cafe. I notice they are dancing to a Spanish language track, the people machine gunned in the street, the unseen villagers napalmed off screen

I note with dismay the FLN describing that the Cabash was full of junkies 

It is beautifully filmed, there is an elegance in the background characters in the shops, and cafes

Yet there is such ugliness in war