France's illusion

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2019)

Told in a brutally realistic style The Battle For Algeria is the ultimate in docudrama. Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo made this film with a bit of distance
between the French-Algerian War post World War II. Pontecorvo skillfully uses
documentary footage to blend in nicely with the story he shot. You think you
are getting an inside look at the war.
Looking back this seems so ludicrous. Post the Napoleonic age France's colonial
expansion took her to North Africa just across the Mediterranean and between
Morocco, Tunisia, and the countries carved out of French Equatorial Africa and
French West Africa she had one large chunk of the continent. By degree and
somewhat hurried by the end of World War II. Except for Algeria and particularly Algiers it's capital city on the coast. For some inexplicable reason
the French took a proprietary interest in the place and would not let it go.
No hearts and minds were won by the French among the Moslem population.
Especially after use of torture. Why they just didn't let them go with the rest
is beyond me.
The Algerian story is told from the point of view of freedom figter Braham
Hadjaji. The French point of view is covered from high ranking officer Jean
Martin. Martin's attitudes are frightening as his sense of propriety concerning
Algiers.
This is one great film with a lot of lessons to be learned about neo-colonialism.