Revolution is in the Streets: The Sixties from an International Perspective: The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri)

May 21, 2008

Film Screening at the Goethe Institut

The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri)
Algeria/Italy, 1966, 121 min., 35 mm, English, b/w, Director: Gillo Pontecorvo Screenplay: Gillo Pontecorvo and Franco Solinas Cast: Brahim Hagiag, Jean Martin, Saadi Yacef

Introduced by Philipp Gassert, deputy director, German Historical Institute

This documentary-style film focuses on Algeria’s violent war of independence from French rule at the end of the fifties, a pivotal event in the formation of a European New Left.

Gillo Pontecorvo’s film copies the styles of Italian neorealism, French cinema vérité and Soviet socialist realism. It received three nominations for an Academy Award in 1967 and 1969.

Revolution is in the Streets: The Sixties from an International Perspective


The "Sixties," especially the pivotal year of 1968, were a global phenomenon, witnessing protest movements in places as far apart as Chicago, Berlin, Mexico City, Prague, Paris and Rome. In the public memory of numerous countries, images of generational revolt, countercultural liberation and confrontations with the authorities are closely tied with those years.

This series highlights some of these events through the eyes of contemporary films, and discusses their legacies with former participants and scholars of this turbulent time.