Theatre / Performance

Screening + Talk: Battle of Algiers (1996)

The Mall, London

Wed 16 Sept · 18:30

Exhibition

About this event

Visible Justice, ICA Research Collective in Residence, continues its inquiry into the body as a site of injury and resistance with a screening of The Battle of Algiers (1966) . The screening will be introduced by a conversation between art historian Taous Dahmani and film scholar Luca Peretti. Employing neorealist techniques including documentary-style cinematography, the reconstruction of historical events, and the use of non-professional actors – among them Saadi Yacef, a former FLN leader who portrays a fictionalised version of himself – the film chronicles Algeria’s long struggle for freedom against brutal French colonial control, ultimately achieving independence in 1962. This screening will be introduced by a conversation between art historian Taous Dahmani, for whom The Battle of Algiers was family viewing, and film scholar Luca Peretti, who has written extensively on its impact. They will reflect on the legacy of a film that won the Golden Lion at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, yet was banned by the French government upon its release and has subsequently been screened by both the Black Panthers and the Pentagon to assess military tactics and the effects of colonial rule on a civilian population. At its 60th anniversary, The Battle of Algiers remains a testament to revolutionary resistance, guerrilla warfare tactics, and state violence, as well as to the visceral power of film. This event is part of Visible Justice 's ongoing residency, which examines shifting conceptions and sites of justice through urgent conversations around censorship, proscription, abolition, occupation, displacement, and gendered violence. Building on themes developed throughout the residency, the programme asks what it means to bear witness, how more embodied forms of justice might be imagined, and for whom the body is made visible or rendered legible.