La battaglia di Algeri / The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo directed this classic, highly influential, and controversial film, that focuses on the early years of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62). The film tells the story of revolutionary fighter Ali La Pointe during the years between 1954 and 1957, when guerrilla fighters of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FNL) regrouped and expanded into the Casbah, the citadel of Algiers. Their actions were stymied by French paratroopers attempting to regain territory. The highly dramatic film is about the organization of a guerrilla movement and the illegal methods, such as torture, used by the colonial power to contain it. Algeria succeeded in gaining independence from the French, which Pontecorvo addresses in the film's epilogue. The film was banned in France for five year after its release.