“ Omnium rerum principia parva sunt”

“ Omnium rerum principia parva sunt - Everything has a small beginning”


     We are currently living in times of high political tension when riots and demonstrations are spreading across North Africa and Middle East. There have been revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia with major public demonstrations of protest in Algeria and Civil War in Libya.

Post Colonial states became Junta regimes under dictatorships in North Africa and Middle East. After all these struggles for liberty there is still no breeding ground for democracy. Riots spark across the lands and lead to huge public outcries and massive demonstrations.

     European Art Film makers were highly aware of these social and political tensions. One of the definitive faces of European Art Film was the director, Gillo Pontecorvo. Arguably, he is one of the crucially important figures to explain the social circumstance.
    Gillo Pontecorvo, born in Pisa, was the son of a wealthy bourgeois Italian Jewish businessman; he escaped to Paris from the Fascist regime of Mussolini and became an active member of the Italian Communist Party and leader of the Resistance in Milan between 1943-45. He definitely lived an extraordinary life fighting for freedom.

Most of Pontecorvo’s films were highly concerned with political issues. ”The Battle of Algiers” (1966) was directed by Pontecorvo and is considered a masterpiece and widely viewed as one of the finest black and white films of the cinéma-vérité genre ever made. Pontecorvo was profoundly influenced by Rossellini’s style: working with non-professional actors, filming and setting historical subjects in their actual environment and using minimal, often hand-held, camera equipment. The film’s portrayal of the Algerian resistance during the Algerian War follows closely in the footsteps of Neorealist pioneers such as de Santis and Rossellini, employing the use of newsreel-style footage, non-professional actors and focusing primarily on the disenfranchised population, who seldom receive such attention from the general media.



This Neo-realist approach is widely described; he uses a definite social context, a sense of historical actuality and immediacy, political commitment to progressive social change and authentic on-location shooting. His extensive use of non-professional actors and his documentary style of cinematography contrast with the Hollywood Studio system with its classical Hollywood acting style the use of an artificial studio.

Pontecorvo’s conception of political filmmaking was derived from situations where the historical background played a major role but had nuances of personal psychology. The protagonists are struggling in a social atmosphere where they are forced to fight in the name of freedom, liberty, social rights and what makes life worth living. Battle of Algiers is anti-imperialist and anti-colonial and structured by Marxist terminology.

     According to Mike Wayne:”…these signifiers of the crucifixion, the Christian motif of suffering and the religious music, so culturally remote from the story material, de-historicise a specific struggle in time and space, turning a story from anti-colonial liberation movements into timeless tragedy, a universal story, a comment on the human condition and other such depoliticising aesthetic concept….”
      Algeria has suffered 130 years of French military and Colonial occupation (1832-1962) and have lost one million people in their fight to gain their independence from France. The film also shows us the current parallel political issues. How can we describe and interpret these social circumstances profoundly? Should we look from the perspective of the Near East Author Edward Said. Edward Said received much praise for his work, his intimate knowledge of colonial era and in the post-structuralist theory of Foucault, Derrida and others. Edward Said also came to be known as a intellectual public figure who frequently discussed contemporary politics, music, culture, and literature on Arab Worlds & Middle East Territories.

At a time when things are changing fast, ideologies have become inane, lost meaning and political crises and uprisings are ubiquitous, we continue to witness the tragedies of the Homosapiens like the destiny of Sisyphus rolling a marble stone to the top of a hill although we are cognizant that our personal uprisings would not move a rock on earth.

     Think about the grotesque skyscrapers that rising city horizon, an ambiguous case of scorched in a virulent fire in Haydarpaşa Train Station, Shopping Centers besieging the city, degeneration and the atmosphere of chaos accompanied by the immigration from the east, the danger of losing the ambiance in the metropolis, or sloppy & artificial and pseudo restorations, riots and protests of the students in London?

Are these the small details that pull up the red flag in our souls? Or the sociological and demographical phenomena that come with deviations in social, political, cultural and aesthetical understanding? What do you think?



All in all, this is the extraordinary story of film which tells us about how Algerian society gained the freedom, and democratical rights in extreme conditions….well, enjoy the film…..



April/ Istanbul MMXI
Duc De Smyrne & Cuneyt Cerit