La Battaglia Di Algeri (The Battle Of Algiers) | 1966
The first feature film made in Algeria (and nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film) covers the final days of the country’s struggle against French rule in 1954.
Despite the utterly convincing documentary style, no actual newsreel footage was used. Director Gillo Pontecorvo filmed entirely on location, and with a non-professional cast, largely in the Casbah of Algiers, where the events depicted had taken place.
When houses needed to be blown up, full-size buildings were erected in the narrow streets, largely from expanded polystyrene. The house of Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag), where he’s killed as it’s destroyed the end of the movie, was reconstructed on the precise site of the real house.
