Cinema of Algeria

Cinema Of Algeria

During the era of French colonization, movies were predominately a propaganda tool for the French colonial state. Although filmed in Algeria and viewed by the local population, the vast majority of "Algerian" cinema in this era was created by Europeans.

The colonial propaganda films themselves generally depict a stereotypical image of pastoral life in the colony, often focusing on an aspect of local culture that the administration sought to change, such as polygamy. One example of such a film is Albert Durec's 1928 Le Désir.

Popular French cinema filmed or set in Algeria often echoed many of the tropes common in administration-funded films. For example, L'Atlantide was a wildly popular 1921 French-Belgian silent movie filmed in the Aurès Mountains, Djidjelli, and Algiers in what was then French Algeria. Although not explicitly about Algeria, the movie (itself based on a popular book) depicts two French Foreign Legion officers and their love affair with the lascivious queen of a fictional Saharan kingdom. One of the earliest films to engage with the French presence in North Africa, the film emphasizes not only the romance and exoticism of the venture, but also European anxieties over their role in Africa and the possibly dangerous affects of inter-racial contact. Other films with similar themes followed, including Le Bled (1929), Le Grand Jeu (1934), and La Bandera (1935).

European domination of the means of cinematic production ended in the early days of the Algerian War, when several Algerian nationalists from the National Liberation Army (ALN) obtained basic film-making equipment which they used to create four short programs. These films were screened via a relay system to viewers in a variety of sympathetic socialist nations. Their content supported the growing nationalist rebellion, including the place of ALN hospitals and a Mujahideen attack on the French mines at Ouenza.