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La battaglia di Algeri

FILM · 1966 · ITALY

La battaglia di Algeri

Directed by
Gillo Pontecorvo
Runtime
122 min
Studio
Igor Film, Casbah Film

34 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing…

  • La battaglia di Algeri — production image

34 Interesting Facts About La battaglia di Algeri

Interesting Facts (11)

  1. #001

    In 2003 the New York Times reported that the Pentagon had shown this film to officers and civilian experts discussing the problems facing US forces in Iraq. The invitation to the screening read: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas."

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  2. #002

    In October 1969, the Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society watched this film to prepare for the Days of Rage, four days of violent action in Chicago meant to spark mass action to end America's war in Vietnam.

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  3. #003

    Because of its contentious pro-Algerian politics, the film wasn't released in France until 1971.

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  4. #004

    Christopher Nolan cited this film as one of the movies that influenced him for The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

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  5. #005

    Gillo Pontecorvo spent a month doing screen tests for cinematographers and only eight days for the actors.

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  6. #006

    The motion picture was purchased by a Soviet film distributor and dubbed into Russian in 1971. However it never premiered in the USSR for unspecified reasons.

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  7. #007

    This film was one of 11 movies that inspired Christopher Nolan in the making of Dunkirk (2017).

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  8. #008

    Ranked #19 in BBC Culture's 100 greatest foreign-language films of all times. The list was created in 2018 by 209 film critics.

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  9. #009

    British film institute has included it in their top 50 list of critics top 50.

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  10. #010

    This film is in the Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films on Letterboxd.

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  11. #011

    Ranked number 19 non-English-speaking film in the critics' poll conducted by the BBC in 2018.

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Production Story (7)

  1. #012

    Gillo Pontecorvo first composed the score himself, but he was persuaded to go with something more conventional, and Ennio Morricone came aboard.

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  2. #013

    The movie is known for using non-professional actors almost exclusively, chosen chiefly for looking like the people they portray rather than for acting skill. Director Gillo Pontecorvo drew the performances he wanted out of them with careful lighting, suitable staging and skillful direction.

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  3. #014

    Director Gillo Pontecorvo and composer Ennio Morricone argued over the score again and again. At one point Pontecorvo had a melody stuck in his head that he badly wanted as the film's theme, so he went to Morricone's apartment to play it to him, humming it all the way up to the top floor. Morricone told him to hold on, because he had come up with a melody of his own, and to Pontecorvo's amazement it was exactly the tune he had in mind. He was thrilled that after months of struggle they had finally, independently, landed on something they could agree on. Only months later, at the Venice film festival, did Morricone admit it was a prank: he had heard Pontecorvo humming on the way up the stairs and decided to pretend he had thought of the same melody.

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  4. #015

    Based on the 1962 book "Souvenirs de la Bataille d'Alger" or "Memories of the Battle of Algiers," an FLN military commander's account of the campaign; the screenplay is by Franco Solinas. Yacef wrote the book while a prisoner of the French, and it served to lift the morale of the FLN and other militants. After independence the French released him and he became a leader in the new government, and the Algerian government backed turning his memoir into a film. Salash Baazi, an FLN leader the French had sent into exile, brought the project to Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and screenwriter Franco Solinas.

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  5. #016

    So convincing was the pseudo-documentary style that the movie came out in the USA with a disclaimer saying not one foot of newsreel had been used.

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  6. #017

    One scene in the film features a loudspeaker announcement in which the French counter-insurgency forces call on the rebels to surrender, and it is claimed that many French officials were themselves anti-Nazi and fought in the French Resistance. Jean Martin, who plays Colonel Mathieu, fought in the French Resistance during World War II and was one of the signatories of the 1960 Manifesto of the 121 in support of Algerian independence.

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  7. #018

    The film was bought in 1971 by a Soviet film distributor and dubbed into Russian, but for unspecified reasons it was never released in the USSR.

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Behind the Scenes (7)

  1. #019

    Whenever houses had to be blown up, full-size buildings were built in the narrow streets, mostly out of expanded polystyrene.

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  2. #020

    With the sunlight in Algeria so intense, white sheets were hung over most locations to diffuse it.

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  3. #021

    The crowd scenes look spontaneous, but they took a lot of planning. Director Gillo Pontecorvo often drew chalk lines on the ground to split the crowd into groups that set off walking on cue so the movement looked right. He also ran several cameras at once and cut together footage from different angles to make the crowds look much bigger than they really were.

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  4. #022

    The man executed in the prison scene got the part because he had really been sentenced to death during the insurgency.

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  5. #023

    Most scenes were reshot 20 times, some as many as 30 or 40, because Gillo Pontecorvo wanted his actors genuinely tired, so that fatigue would show on their faces where fear, exhaustion and frustration were called for.

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  6. #024
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    The real Ali La Pointe's house stood on the exact spot where the film's version, destroyed at the end, was rebuilt.

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  7. #025

    While Gillo Pontecorvo conducted screen tests for cinematographers for a month, he spent only eight days on tests for actors.

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Characters & Cast (5)

  1. #026

    Yacef Saadi, whose memoirs inspired the film, plays his own real-life character, Djafar.

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  2. #027

    The French counter-insurgency's loudspeaker broadcast in one scene calls on the rebels to surrender, insisting that many French officials were anti-Nazis who had fought in the French resistance. Jean Martin, who plays the paratroopers' commander Colonel Mathieu, actually had fought with the French resistance against the Nazi occupation in World War II, and was one of the signers of the 1960 Manifesto of 121 supporting Algerian independence.

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  3. #028

    Jean Martin as Colonel Mathieu is the only professional actor in the film; director Gillo Pontecorvo wanted at least one, especially in that pivotal role. The two clashed often on set, with Pontecorvo trying to rein Martin in so his performance would sit better alongside the non-professionals'.

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  4. #029

    Col. Mathieu is loosely drawn from the real General Jacques Massu. In 1958, right-wing factions in the French Army led by Massu seized power in Algiers and threatened to march on Paris, with paratroopers and armored forces based at Rambouillet, unless Charles de Gaulle was put in charge of France. De Gaulle did take over, on the condition that a new constitution create a powerful presidency in which a single executive, starting with de Gaulle, would rule for seven-year periods. The changes went through, and the French Fifth Republic, which still stands, was born.

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  5. #030

    Most of the cast were dubbed, as they were all non-professionals.

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Deeper Meaning (2)

  1. #031

    Film critics and historians single this film out as one of the first to give North Africans complex, fully developed characters; previous films, historians say, had used them as little more than backdrop or scenery, while this film dealt with them as people.

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  2. #032

    By French government figures, 236,000 Algerian Muslims were serving in the French Army in 1962 (four times as many as in the FLN), in regular units (Spahis and Tirailleurs) or as irregulars (harkis and moghaznis). With their families, these indigenous Muslim loyalists may have numbered as many as 1 million by some estimates, and the film doesn't depict them at all.

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Career & Awards (2)

  1. #033

    One of the few films in Oscar history to be a nominee in two separate non-consecutive years. It was a foreign film nominee for 1966 and then a nominee for screenplay and direction for 1968.

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  2. #034

    The film was met with international acclaim, and it is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. It won the Golden Lion at the 27th Venice Film Festival among other awards and nominations. It also was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Writing, Story or Screenplay. A subject of sociopolitical controversy in France, the film was not screened in the country for five years. Insurgent groups and state authorities have considered it to be an important commentary on urban guerrilla warfare. In Sight and Sound's 2022 poll of the greatest films of all time, it ranked 45th on the critics' list and 22nd with directors.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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