The Battle of Algiers, a 1966 film that poetically captures
Algerian resistance to French colonial occupation, is widely
considered one of the greatest political films of all time. With an
artistic defiance that matched the boldness of the anticolonial
struggles of the time, it was embraced across the political
spectrum--from leftist groups like the Black Panther Party and the
Palestine Liberation Organization to right-wing juntas in the 1970s
and later, the Pentagon in 2003. With a philosophical nod to Frantz
Fanon, Sohail Daulatzai demonstrates that tracing the film's
afterlife reveals a larger story about how dreams of freedom were
shared and crushed in the fifty years since its release. As the War
on Terror expands and the "threat" of the Muslim looms, The
Battle of Algiers is more than an artifact of the past--it's a
prophetic testament to the present and a cautionary tale of an
imperial future, as perpetual war has been declared on permanent
unrest.
Forerunners:
Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough
digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books,
Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs,
social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy
of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where
intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.