In the 18th century, the Barbary threat became serious. In July 1785 two American ships were brought back to Algiers; in the winter of 1793, eleven American ships, their crews chained, were in the hands of the Dey of Algiers. To ensure the freedom of movement of their merchant fleet, the U.S.A was forced to conclude treaties with the main Barbary states, paying considerable sums of money as a guarantee of non-aggression. With Morocco, treaty of 1786, 30,000 dollars; Tripoli, November 4, 1796, $56,000; Tunis, August 1797, $107,000. But the most expensive and the most humiliating was with the dey of Algiers, on September 5, 1795, "peace and friendship treaty" which cost nearly a million dollars (including 525,000 ransom for freed American slaves) , with the obligation to pay 20,000 dollars on the arrival of each new consul and 17,000 dollars in annual gifts to senior Algerian officials...
In this documentary, Marie-Claire Rubinstein reveals to us, through the testimonies of the inhabitants who live there, the architectural achievements of the French urban planner Fernand Pouillon in Algiers. In particular the vast complexes of hundreds of social housing units, including the most famous Diar E Saâd (1953), Diar El Mahçoul (1954) and Climat de France (1957). The historical context, during the war of independence is related by the historian Benjamin Stora and Nadir Boumaza. This documentary also evokes the personality of Fernand Pouillon in a post-colonial context.
Summer 2019, Zak wanders the streets of Algiers and dives into the Hirak, a series of protests taking place in Algeria since February of that year. His chronicles are nourished by encounters with men and women who take an enlightened look at their country and its struggles: through their words, the strength and complexity of such a movement emerge.
"Film shot on the 'bench' from hundreds of photos, buildings, streets, towns unusually colorful for a North Mediterranean eye. The editing was composed on a score because the shots are generally very short, up to two images, and they do not follow each other "cut" or crossed but in "racket". The progression of shots varies from faintly colored recognizable to strongly colored unrecognizable. The soundtrack is composed of Arabic music that gradually turns into free-jazz. » Mannheim Festival, 1973
Directed by Rachid Benallal.
Directed by Mustapha Badie.
Originally commissioned by the city of Algiers to promote tourism, Mohamed Zinet’s Tahia ya Didou blends documentary with fiction to create a poetic, acerbic and rapturous portrait of the director’s native city. The camera travels freely, through the port, market, streets and cafés, capturing everyday people, some of whom recur frequently enough to seem like protagonists. The nominal plotline follows a French tourist couple’s leisurely visit to the city, the man having previously served in the army during the Algerian war. As they walk around, his comments betray his mindset’s racist colonial prejudices, while his wife reiterates asinine clichés. Their unhurried wandering is interrupted when he comes across a blind man and realises that he tortured him during his army service. The film is punctuated with punchy sequences that show a poet named Momo delivering verse as an elegy for Algiers.
Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French colonial rule as seen through the eyes of Ali from his start as a petty thief to his rise to prominence in the organisation and capture by the French in 1957. The film traces the rebels' struggle and the increasingly extreme measures taken by the French government to quell the revolt.
Nedjma, an 18-year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War keep her from experiencing a normal life. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to put on a fashion show.
Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.
World War II, June 1940. France has fallen and suffers the relentless boot of Nazi Germany. But Algeria, the prized French colony in North Africa, remains part of the territory controlled by the Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain. A strict colonial order is maintained: the French of European origin rule, while local Jews are stripped of French citizenship and discrimination against the mainly Muslim population increases.
After the King of Ruthenia has been assassinated, Holmes and Watson are engaged to escort his son to Europe via Algiers, aboard a transatlantic ocean liner which also carries a number of suspicious persons, any of whom may be involved in a plot to also assassinate him.
Penelope, an American tourist cat who's gotten a white stripe of paint down her back, is pursued through the Casbah by the amorous skunk Pepe Le Pew, who woos her with his rendition of "As Time Goes By".
Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby, which arouses the jealousy of Ines.
Forced by her mean-spirited father, Lord Chief Justice James O'Brien, to marry a man she doesn't love, Connaught O'Brien gives up hope of ever with her true love, Dermot McDermot. After her father dies and a hunted rebel leader returns to town, however, Connaught finds a renewed hope that the tides of oppression will shift and she might again find happiness. This silent romantic drama, set in Ireland, is the first film in which a then-unknown John Wayne is clearly visible.
This FitzPatrick Traveltalk short visits the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, and Marrakesh in Morocco, as well as the city of Algiers in Algeria.
This Traveltalk short visits the ports of Algiers and Monaco in the Mediterranean.
December 1994. On Saturday 24th, four GIA terrorists hijack an Air France A300 Airbus, bound for Paris, with 227 passengers on board, at the Algiers airport.
This movie portrays three women living in today's Algeria between modern society and Islamic fundamentalism, self-determination and dependence. Goucem, a young woman who works for a photographer and mistress of a rich doctor, her mother Papicha, a former cabaret star, and her best friend Fifi, a prostitute, all live in a hotel in the city center of Algiers. Their difficult personal situation and the growing influence of Islam lead to dramatic consequences...
Pepe Le Moko leads a gang of jewel thieves in the Casbah of Algiers, where he has exiled himself to escape imprisonment in his native France.