of Algiers - Martin Westlake Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers Author: Martin Filed under: Work Tuesday Sep 27,2011 This evening we watched Gillo Pontecorvo’s extraordinarily powerful Battle of Algiers . Insurgency and counter-insurgency. Systematic, very deliberate, state-sanctioned use of torture. The atmospherics of the Casbah and the authenticity of a cast playing itself. (Indeed,