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The Battle of Algiers

Carolyn Soto

3 April 2009

The Battle of Algiers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viM2D2hW2O4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KgbWjYeIAQ&feature=related

The Battle of Algiers, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, tells the story of the French foreign legion’s involvement in the Algerian fight for independence in 1954. The movie is filmed in a documentary style, attempting to maintain a nonbiased representation of both parties involved. One particular scene in the movie is especially striking and deals with a topic that has been discussed before in our panels. Three women from the Algerian party, called the National Liberation Front, go on a mission to plant three bombs in the European part of the city, two in cafes and another in the Air France office. This scene deals with both racial and gender representation in direct relationship with war technology.

Directly before this scene occurs the Algerian Casbah has just been bombed by the French. The members of the NLF and the occupants of the Casbah are furious and what revenge on the French. The leader of the NLF, Djafar, stops the people from revolting immediately, telling them that the NLF will avenge them. The scene then immediately cuts to a room where three women are taking off their burkhas and examining themselves in the mirror. The youngest of the three tries to tie her hair back but after much deliberation simply decides to cut off her long braids before beginning to bleach it. The three women change into more European looking clothing as they also attempt to ‘Europeanize’ their appearances. The music accompanying this otherwise soundless scene is a heavy and fast paced drum beat, that adds chaos and tension to the scene. Djafar enters the room with another member of the NLF, Ali La Pointe, and looks over each other women. He looks at the third women, the oldest, the longest and is unsure of whether her new appearance will be acceptable. She replies that she will bring her son with her as a precaution and he tells her to use a specific checkpoint because it will be easier there. Djafar then explains that the women will have to get through different military checkpoints before meeting up with a man in the fish market. Each of the women is handed a bag which contains a bomb that the man from the fish market will activate for them. The women successfully make it through each checkpoint where the French soldiers flirt with the younger of the two women. There is a direct contrast at one of the checkpoints when a man is stopped because he has forgotten his papers and is forced to enter a holding facility. The women enter their assigned places and drop the bombs successfully, each woman is able to get away unnoticed and the NLF’s plan goes as expected.

What is so striking about this scene is the women’s ‘Europeanization’ to make it through the checkpoints. The women strip themselves of their typical Muslim garb and change into more European clothes, clothes that are less conservative. The youngest woman makes a large sacrifice when she cuts off her long braids and then bleaches her hair lighter. The oldest woman has the most difficult time and Djafar is worried about whether she will make it through the checkpoint safely. This is because she is the most ‘ethnic’ looking since she is darker than the younger two girls and she has her longer hair. It may also be because she looks older than the other two, who get through the checkpoints easily and flirt with the French soldiers. These women make personal sacrifices for the NLF’s cause which leads into a class discussion on female suicide bombers.

While the women in The Battle of Algiers were not suicide bombers, they did use their femaleness as an advantage. In class we discussed why more and more women are becoming suicide bombers. One of the most glaringly obvious reasons is that the women are not supposed to be touched and therefore are able to slip through checkpoints without being patted down. Their traditional burkhas are also an advantage which they use to hide the bombs they wear. In the film, the women carry the bombs in their purses and simply leave them pushed under tables or seats. The women in the film, like the female suicide bombers, use their femaleness to their advantage. The women are depicted as more ‘Europeanized’ Algerians and therefore go through the checkpoints easily and without a hassle. These women are seen as unsuspecting and docile, the French could not imagine that they would be carrying explosives in their bags. The film represents these women as cunning and fearless and the French as easily fooled by a pretty ‘Europeanized’ face.

This film depicts a trend that is becoming more and more popular today, female bombers. Women are often seen as peace keepers, as passive and meek; no one suspects a pretty girl. However, the women in this film make immense sacrifices for their cause by cutting and dying their hair and taking on a more ‘European’ look. While the film attempts to remained unbiased, it manages to shine a bright light on this women and makes it easy for the audience to identify with them or at least makes it easier for the audience to cheer them on towards victory.

Works Cited

La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers). Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo. Perf. Brahim Hadjadj,

Jean Martin, and Yacef Saadi. Igor Film. 1967.

One Response
  1. Anne Dalke permalink*
    April 7, 2009

    What a striking predecessor you’ve found to highlight here: a very compelling historical analogy to our class discussions about the increasing prevalence of female suicide bombers. Perhaps most surprising to me in your account is the way in which the women in the film “Europeanize” in order to pass the checkpoints, while the women we discussed in our panel (contrastingly) exploited their Islamic identity—and the Muslim conventions of men not touching women—to achieve the same ends.

    What puzzles me about your project, though, is the place where you choose to end, evoking the audience’s sympathy for the women in the film. How does that work as a finale for the analogies that you draw throughout?

    One possible connection that occurs to me lies in the work of Rick McCauley, a member of the Psych faculty here, who studies why-and-how people become terrorists. It is one of the most compelling claims of his work that we can’t understand terrorists out of context, that their work is supported by a “pyramid” of people who sympathize, who enable their violence against civilians in a wide variety of non-violent ways.

    Are you, in evoking sympathy @ the end of your paper, turning us—as viewers of the film, as those who are studying the phenomenon of female suicide bombing—into terrorists? Or terrorist sympathizers? And what are the political implications of that gesture? For our study of gender and technology—and ourselves?

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