Stalemate in the Casbah

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2018)

An Italian-Algerian historical war drama; This is a film based on true events - the war between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, and the use of torture by both sides.
The Battle of Algiers remains to this day an important film associated with Italian neo-realism cinema. A failure to win "hearts and minds" it was considered as important material by some in the consideration of the outcome of a War on Terror in Iraq and perhaps even highly prescient.
It is a highly dramatic film shot in a documentary reel style with non-actors. While banned for five years in France it now is considered one of the great films of the 20th Century. Its achievement is not only its power of storyline and narrative but the effect of appearing as truth stylistically. No stock news footage is used which is astonishing for the realism it succeeded in depicting. Its value has increased from a historical point of view because those involved with the actual skirmishes and conflict will no doubt have seen the film differently in 1966.