Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo was greatly acclaimed for this movie, “The battle of Algiers.” He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the best director Oscar in 1969. The film retraces the early fights of people of Algiers to regain their freedom against the French. The two opponents are the F.L.N, “Front de Liberation National” or National Front Liberation-which establishes their base in the muslin part of the city and the powerful French army under the control of Colonel Mathieu. Ali La Pointe and his colleagues lead the charge for a free Algeria. Algiers is no longer the peaceful refuge where the French enjoys the delightful moments in café or they could be careless while walking the streets. It becomes a battlefield where French police officers are killed day by days and bombs explode here and there. Ali La Pointe and his colleagues use all the strategies to challenge the enemies and keeping Algiers in the spot light. In the end the French army triumphs by killing him and most of the nationalists. The Colonel Mathieu was not a man who’s going to let questions of legality and conventional methods prevent him from attain his military objective.
This film crosses many themes such as colonialism, terrorism and the right for freedom. The French have established themselves as owner of the land in Algeria with great military power. They have built their private corner for pleasures with all the luxuries. On the other hands, the resident that most of them are muslin live packed in their corner under the rules of the incoming giant. This raises the point of which order is right or wrong.
This important question is more and more in actuality nowadays where such phenomenon as terrorism is been actualized. There are many issues that were back then in the mind from both side of the fighter; that are still relevant today. The nationalists have to face the issues of how to fight against the abomination and cruelties of a super power when they control the alleys of information and the organism rescuers. On the other side, the French had to figure out which best way to win the battle over terrorism. Their tasks were greater. As one of the powerful army in the world at the time, they won the military fight. However, they lost the control of Algeria months later. This is a good example to say that military solutions are not the best way to address issues that is relevant to feeling and well being. You can not force an individual or any group to follow your way of living. Those things can not be imposed by ways of power.
There is also the fear that these fights would turn into an ethnic conflict or racial discriminations as we have seen it in this film and plenty of others. When solutions are hard to find, many hypocrite politicians and public officials go to the easiest way by blaming others and hoping to create cohesion among their citizens.