Arabs & Arabian Records Aggregator. Chronicler. Milestones of the 25 Countries of the Arabic Speaking World (official / co-official). AGCC. MENA. Global. Ist's to Top 10's. Records. Read & Enjoy./ www.arabianrecords.org
Tunisian artist Safia Farhat was not only a dynamic tapestry creator, but had an impressive resumé including ceramicist, educator, women’s rights activist, and publishing pioneer. She was a woman who accumulated a list of historic firsts in her lifetime.
She contributed to the growth of visual culture in independent Tunisia under the progressive leadership of President Habib Bourguiba. Farhat designed national stamps, had her fiber art displayed in the country’s banks, hotels, and schools, and worked with expert weavers and artisans in her studio.
Farhat was born in the harbor city of Rades in 1924 and raised in a well-to-do family. It was her maternal aunt, who was skilled in knitting and crochet, who cultivated Farhat’s love of art. She went on to study at the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts and was reportedly just the third Tunisian woman to enroll there.
She later became the institute’s first female director in 1966 — remaining in the role for more than a decade. She encouraged female students to take part in the institute’s programming. Farhat also founded Tunisia’s first magazine for women, “Faiza,” delving into feminism and decolonization, among other social issues.
Her colorful, thickly lined tapestries depict animals, plants, and men and women wearing traditional clothing. “When I saw her work, I was really fascinated by its sculptural elements, the color, the various techniques that were embedded in it — and by their stories,” Jessica Gerschultz, a professor of African studies at the University of Kansas, told Arab News.
“She seems to really play on self-referentiality,” she continued. “Her works are referring to her other works, so there are many symbols — lots of triangles and zigzags — integrated into her weavings and other works that she did in ceramics and iron.”
Farhat, who died in 2004, is a name still recognized by some older people in her homeland, but she has been generally overlooked, ironically, by young art students in Tunisia. “At the institute, maybe students know her name, but they’re not very familiar with her,” noted Gerschultz. “Maybe they don’t know her at all.”
International interest in Farhat, however, was boosted last year as a result of her works being showcased at the Venice Biennale. “It’s wonderful to see her contributions now being viewed more widely,” said Gerschultz.
Dubai – Dubai is the also the most record-breaking city not just within the country but also across the Mena region.
The UAE is far ahead in achieving the Guinness World Records regionally as the country boasts 425 GWRs with 34 of them were achieved in 2020 alone.
Dubai is the also the most record-breaking city not just within the country but also across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
“The UAE is currently home to 425 Guinness World Records titles, making it the biggest record-breaking country in the Mena region… Dubai has the lion share of titles in the country with around 60 per cent of the overall number,” said Danny Hickson, senior events production manager at Guinness World Records Ltd in Dubai.
Global Village, a multicultural family entertainment destination, achieved two records in November alone. The first record was set by having the most LED lights ever on a car. The vehicle had 36,676 LED lights. The feat began two weeks ago as the park achieved the record for the most videos in a music medley video following the Rockin’1000 Season 25 opening concert.
Global Village aims to break 25 records this season as part of its Silver Jubilee anniversary celebrations.
Emirati shipbuilder Obaid Jumaa bin Majid Al Falasi also made it into the history by building the world’s largest dhow, a wooden Arabic boat, measuring 91.47-metre long and 20.41-metre wide. That is equal to the length and almost half the width of a standard American football field floating over the Indian Ocean.
Dubai’s Nakheel Mall, too, recently broke the record for the world’s largest fountain, measuring a whole 7,327 m2. The record breaking fountain named The Palm Fountain was designed a with tricks including colour and brightness controls.
The emirate is also home to the world’s tallest hotel – 75-storey Gevora Hotel, measuring 356.33 metres tall from the group level to the top.
Danny Hickson said Saudi Arabia comes second with 96 Guinness World Records titles, while Egypt is not far in the third place with 93 titles.
On September 23, Saudi Arabia achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest fireworks display in multiple cities as the display consisted of 962,168 fireworks.
“What’s brilliant about breaking world records with brands in the UAE is that there is almost a chance to do something different with the heritage. Brands and individuals think it is impossible to be break world records, but we believe everyone is amazing in his own way, and we are here to make their achievement Officially Amazing!,” said Hickson.
“We have seen the tallest house of cards build in 12 hours, sat on top of a washing machine, to demonstrate its reduced vibrations and noise levels; and an iconic car brand celebrated its 80th anniversary by breaking the record for the largest loop the loop in a car! Would we find amazing talents among Khaleej Times readers?,” concluded Hickson.
NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) group leader and research scientist Dimitra Atri from the Centre for Space Science and his team have created a never-seen-before map of Mars, using images exclusively created from the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI).
The EXI is a state-of-the-art imaging system on-board the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), also known as Hope or Al-Amal, which is currently orbiting Mars. The global photographic map not only showcases new images of the Red Planet from the perspective of the Hope probe, but is a testament to the UAE’s huge advancements in the field of science, and will be a valuable resource to motivate young people to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines in the UAE.
The Mars Map combines more than 3,000 observations, produced by Hope’s onboard EXI instrument. Atri and his team created the colour composite map by stitching together the thousands of observations from the EXI instrument over the course of one Mars year (two Earth years).
Commenting on the project, Atri said, “We plan to make our map available to the entire planet, as part of the new and more advanced Atlas of Mars, which we have been working on, and will be available in both English and Arabic once published. The hope is that this accessibility will make it a great tool for researchers, and also students to learn more about Mars, and showcase the possibilities that the space sector in the UAE can offer.”
The Mars Map shows regions and features of the Red Planet in exceptional resolution, highlighting all its major features. For example, polar ice caps, mountains, volcanoes, remnants of ancient rivers, lakes, valleys, and impact craters are visible. Such highly detailed maps are an essential foundation upon which future scientific research on Mars can be built. The map will further allow scientists to learn about momentous shifts in climate that can fundamentally alter planets, which will provide insights that may be able to help us on Earth too.
“The complete Mars Map also brings the UAE and the Arab world another step closer to achieving EMM’s ambitious mission goal, to provide a complete global picture of the Martian climate,” Atri added.
“More than 30 previous spacecraft have only managed to capture a snapshot of the Mars weather, whilst EMM will follow the seasonal changes throughout a Martian year. The Hope probe is helping researchers to create this global image of the planet due to its strategic position. Hope circles Mars in an elliptical orbit that allows it to observe from much further away than any other spacecraft. This strategic position is helping researchers to create a global image of the planet,” he said.
EMM is the UAE and the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission commissioned by the country’s leaders in 2014. The spacecraft was launched from Japan on 20th July, 2020. Seven months later, on 9th February, 2021, the Hope probe entered Mars’ orbit.
In our continuing series of inspiring life stories across continents, we hear about the Egyptian-American economist’s battle to overcome institutional prejudice.
It was speech day in the last week of secondary school when Mohamed El-Erian might have been forgiven for thinking that all lessons had come to an end, but there was one more in store for the unsuspecting student.
Seated in the audience, flush with the thrill of winning a scholarship to read economics at Queens’ College, Cambridge, Mohamed was listening as the roll call of the cohort’s achievements was read out.
The teenager, an Egyptian-American, was the only foreign pupil at St John’s, Leatherhead, then a private boys’ boarding school in a leafy town just south of London, and one of two in the year to have gained entry to Oxbridge, the duopoly of grand ancient seats of learning in the cities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The feeling of being about to go up to Cambridge was “incredible, absolutely incredible”, yet when the headmaster wrapped up the announcements there had been no mention made of any El-Erian. Nor was his honour logged, like that of the other successful applicant, on the school record.
Mr El-Erian, now 62, known to millions as a globe-trotting economist who has shaped thinking about historic twists in the world’s fortunes, was recently elected as president at his alma mater at the University of Cambridge, the place that equipped him so well for his stellar future.
But back in the 1970s, the struggle for recognition with his old school was to last almost the entirety of his undergraduate degree and would inadvertently serve “as an indication of the institutional racism that was still ripe at that time” in England.
To this day, Mr El-Erian, credits one of his masters at St John’s School, Bill Chubb, for not only inspiring him to succeed but for taking up the three-year fight to have the school and its headteacher recognise that triumph.
Fast forward more than four decades and the circle has completed in proper order. “Our congratulations to Dr Mohamed El-Erian (West 1973-1976) on his election as the 42nd president of Queens’ College, Cambridge,” announced a recent issue of the school’s The Old Johnian publication. “He will take up office from October 2020. Mr El-Erian won a scholarship from St John’s to read economics at Queens’ College.”
The new president of the college founded in 1448 arrived in post six months after the pandemic hit. His social media feeds are filled with scenes from across the picturesque city, whether of the Mathematical Bridge, the 270-year-old wooden structure he wanders over to reach the half-timbered lodge where he now lives, or the surrounding countryside he walks in with his beloved dog Bosa.
Unsurprisingly, one of the key objectives he aims to deliver on is expanding access to the college to more people from diverse and less advantaged backgrounds.
He also wants to encourage students “to do even better what they already do well”, which he himself learnt after arriving at Cambridge full of worries about being able to keep up academically, making friends or fitting in.
“It took me some time to get over this ‘imposter syndrome’ and, returning for my second year, I had a noticeable bounce in my step,” Mr El-Erian tells The National.
However, when he went to the customary beginning of term meeting with his director of studies in economics, Andy Cosh, he was asked how he thought it had gone so far.
“When I responded ‘great’ to his question about my first year, he immediately said: ‘You could and should do so much better.’ That remark had a notable impact on me. And I took it to heart.
‘With a mix of renewed determination and nervous excitement, I tried to do both more and better. I was fortunate enough to end up getting a first class honours degree, captain of the football team, on the squash team, and making amazing friendships that have lasted to this day. Moreover, every year was more fun than the previous one.”
Mr El-Erian, though, credits the entire experience of studying at the revered institution for broadening his horizon, exposing him to robust academic discussions, providing key analytical tools, and introducing him to interdisciplinary approaches.
Knowledge gains such as these propelled him on to the world stage. His career began at the International Monetary Fund in 1983, straight after a doctorate in economics at the University of Oxford.
Joining the Washington-based lender had never been part of his initial plan, though. “I had intended to be an academic,” he says.
When his father died suddenly, Mr El-Erian felt an imperative to find a higher-paying job than one in academia to help his “amazing mother” support his seven-year-old sister.
“The IMF ended up being an outstanding experience, exposing me to remarkable economic and financial policy issues at a relatively young age,” he says.
After 15 years, he moved into the private sector with Salomon Smith Barney/Citibank in London, where he wanted to understand how finance and “the plumbing of the international economy” worked.
It was not long before the axiom “when El-Erian speaks, Wall Street listens” was coined.
From there, he joined the global investment management company Pimco in 1999 as head of emerging markets portfolio management, latterly becoming chief executive and co-chief investment officer of the then $2 trillion investment fund.
Until, that is, the father of two got an unexpected memo, received after telling his 10-year-old daughter to brush her teeth. “She asked me to wait a minute, went to her room and came back with a piece of paper. It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments,” he said in a 2014 interview. Jotted down were 22 milestones for which he had been absent: her first day of school, first football game, Halloween parades, several recitals.
“Talk about a wake-up call … my work-life balance had gotten way out of whack, and the imbalance was hurting my very special relationship with my daughter.”
Famously, he quit. Afterwards, he invested more time in his family and became economic adviser to the management board at financial services company Allianz, a role he still holds part-time today.
He also wrote The Only Game in Town, his second New York Times best-seller, on the protracted policy over-reliance on central banks. His first book, the award-winning When Markets Collide, which highlighted the growing fragilities and the likelihood of major meltdown, was published just before the 2008 global financial crisis.
Writing – books and economic analysis articles for media organisations – helps expose gaps in his knowledge and discipline his thinking process.
It is a personal philosophy inspired by his father, who gained a doctorate on scholarship to Columbia University, was a professor at Cairo University and later joined the diplomatic service with postings to the United Nations mission in New York and the embassies in France and Switzerland. He was then elected judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
As a consequence, Mr El-Erian’s upbringing was very international. He was born in New York and schooled there as well as in Cairo, Paris and St John’s, where his Egyptian parents hoped to give him the stability of learning one academic curriculum in one language – he speaks four: English, French, Arabic and Spanish – and the chance to make friends.
There was a particular interaction with his father that stands out in Mr El-Erian’s memory. Every morning, El-Erian Snr read the five newspapers delivered to the ambassadorial residence in France. Occasionally, he would check if his teenage son had read them, too.
“I asked him what was the point of having so many newspapers as, after all, ‘the news is the news’.
“‘Wrong’, he responded and explained that through the range of newspapers we were receiving, I had access to a range of political perspectives.”
The message was clear that unless the young El-Erian was regularly exposed to different opinions, he would not have sufficient awareness to make sound decisions.
“This emphasis on what we call today ‘cognitive diversity’ has been a major driver of my life since,” he says. “I often feel that I operate at intersections – or, as my daughter says, ‘in the in-between’. And it is why I feel so strongly about promoting diversity and inclusion.”
The issues surrounding diversity and inclusion crop up at many points during the conversation, as they have in Mr El-Erian’s life, something he largely attributes to his Arab roots, which have had a great influence on him.
He believes that the West does not fully understand the Middle East and North Africa, primarily because the conditions in Arab countries vary so widely.
“The result is either excessive generalisation and over-dramatisation or, worse, a sense that the region has lost its way and is too unpredictable to deal with,” he says.
“Looking forward, and this is not just highly desirable but also very feasible, the critical requirement is to unleash the incredible potential of the youth. The region is full of talented young people with massive upside, and with some who have already done amazing things when placed in an enabling environment.”
Mr El-Erian, of course, knows about this first hand. He has encountered prejudice many times and still does even all these years after that speech day snub.
“I have learnt to deal with this and, more generally, am committed to ensure that biases, conscious and unconscious, do not get in the way of people with amazing potential,” he says.
It is the kind of input he wants to have at Queens’ College – despite residing in the Tudor-style President’s Lodge among the older buildings known affectionately but somewhat ominously by the students as the “dark” side. As opposed to the “light” side represented by the newer buildings on the opposite bank of the River Cam.
“I love being back, and for many reasons,” Mr El-Erian says. “One of them includes the ability to walk in a beautiful town with inspiring scenery and surrounded by smart people, many of whom are trying to solve complex problems and make the world better.
“I am not thinking beyond Cambridge,” he says. “I am delighted to be here and have a lot to do working with colleagues to continue to enable current and future generations to contribute to society in multi-faceted ways.”
The professional aspirations are ever-present, as much as Mr El-Erian is enjoying the simple pleasures of the university city once again. He and Bosa can regularly be spotted tramping across fields early on a foggy morning. It is, he says, an invaluable time spent listening to podcasts and radio shows, envisaging forthcoming articles, gathering his thoughts.
He is living a new phase of his life back at the heart of Queens’, no longer the awkward undergraduate with imposter syndrome but a global powerhouse returned to right the wrongs of the past.
Mohamed El-Erian, economist: ‘It is my hope that, through visionary leadership and better coordination, 2022 will be remembered proudly as the year we both won the war against Covid and secured the foundation for a fulfilling, prosperous, and durable peace for all.’ Bloomberg via Getty Images
British and Egyptian government officials celebrated on Monday seven years of cooperation between the two countries under the Newton-Mosharafa Fund, which supports research and innovation programmes to advance economic development and social welfare, tackle global challenges and develop talent and careers.
Participating in the celebration were the British Embassy in Cairo, the British Council, together with the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority (STDF) and the Central Department of Missions (CDM).
The fund is named after British mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists in history, and the Egyptian theoretical physicist Doctor Ali Mustafa Mosharafa, who contributed to the development of quantum theory.
It is the largest science and innovation partnership between Egypt and the UK in history.
The ceremony started with speeches by the British Ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley, British Council Country Director Elizabeth White, and Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Yasser Refaat
It was followed by a panel discussion on the role of international collaboration in science and research.
The discussion involved professor Guy Daly, provost and senior vice-president of the British University in Egypt; Shaimaa Lazem, international collaboration programme manager at STDF; Dr Marco Zaki, lecturer of biochemistry and cell biology and founder of the NILE CAN research laboratory at Minia University; and Irene Gabriel, director of the Smart Engineering Systems Research Centre at Nile University.
At the ceremony, the British ambassador expressed his pride in celebrating the alumni from the joint British-Egyptian programme.
“These outstanding scientists are the leaders of tomorrow, and today’s event pays tribute to them and to the legacy of the Newton Mosharafa Fund, one of the largest science and innovation partnerships between Egypt and any country,” he said.
He went on to note that the alumni are working to make the world a better place everyday through their research into curing cancer, achieving food and water security and “making the earth a safer, healthier and more sustainable place to live in.”
During her speech, British Council Egypt Director Elizabeth White observed that the fund has supported her country’s long-term approach by “building the next generation of scientists”
“For seven years, we have worked with our partners to enable the exchange of learning and ideas between scientists in the UK and Egypt,” she added.
She concluded by saying that the British Council will remain committed to opening up access to science and research to support UK-Egypt priorities.
Funding Egypt’s long-term sustainable development
The fund is valued at £55 million over seven years; the cost is shared between the UK and Egyptian governments.
It focuses on five main areas identified by the Egyptian government as priorities for their long-term sustainable development: water management, renewable energy, food production, archaeological and cultural heritage and affordable and inclusive healthcare.
These priorities are closely related to Egypt’s Vision 2030 sustainable development strategy, as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Since its launch in 2014, the Newton-Mosharafa Fund has provided 282 scholarships to Egyptian researchers to obtain a doctoral degree, in addition to funding 69 research partnerships between Egyptian and UK universities. Research related to health care had a significant share of it, amounting to about 69 percent of doctoral scholarships and about 22 percent of research partnerships.
Notable alumni
Some of the outstanding Newton-Mosharafa alumni who attended the ceremony include: Dr Marco Zaki, winner of the Newton Prize for his research on treating liver cancer, and Dr Irene Gabriel, who is a Newton Mosharafa grant holder. She lead a research team at Nile University together with Nottingham University to turn dried shrimp shells into thin films of biodegradable plastic that can be used to make eco-friendly grocery bags and packaging.
Shaimaa Lazem, who is an associate research professor at the City of Scientific Research and Technology Applications (SRTA-City), was awarded Newton-Mosharafa grants three times. Her work focuses on designing prototypes for technologies that serve the rural communities in Egypt. She is currently working with artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups in Africa as part of a Google Research for Inclusion and Google AI Awards.
Also in attendance was Yasser Shabana, who developed adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on wheat, maize and food production in Egypt.
Moroccan boxer Khadija El Mardi won the gold medal on Sunday in New Delhi, India, during the Women’s World Amateur Boxing Championships.
The national champion El Mardi, who competed in the heavyweight division (Over 81kgs), won the women’s world boxing championship by defeating the Kazakh Kungeibayeva Lazzat.
El Mardi has achieved a number of victories over the years, including the title of African champion in 2022, a victory at the African Games in Rabat in 2019, a silver medal at the World Championships in 2022, and this year’s Mohammed VI Trophy gold medal.
Born in Casablanca in 1991, El Mardi’s everlasting commitment and heroic efforts to achieve success have made her name stand out.
The UAE’s Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza was honored on Tuesday with the Arab Woman Award at a ceremony in London in recognition of her contributions to female empowerment in the region and her philanthropic efforts in various countries, Vogue Arabia reported.
Sheikha Fatima has been a strong supporter of cultural initiatives, particularly those involving the arts and sports.
She has endorsed several programs aimed at boosting the cultural scene in the UAE and the region through her role as chairwoman of the board of directors of the Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies Sports Academy and the Fatima bint Hazza Cultural Foundation.
Her other accomplishments include increasing access to education in Bangladesh, building schools in Kenya, and forming the Fatima bint Hazza Fund for Emirati women to pursue higher education abroad, Vogue Arabia reported.
She is “committed to enhancing the role of women in various ways, as she is a supporter of sports and arts, and we are honored to bestow her with the Achievement Award in Cultural Development,” the Arab London Foundation said.
The philanthropist has also helped broaden young people’s interest in fields such as art, literature, sustainability and community interaction, Vogue Arabia reported.
The Fatima bint Hazza Cultural Foundation recently launched a series of short stories for young people focusing on culture, local identity and sustainability
Upon accepting her award, Sheikha Fatima praised Emirati leaders and their efforts to encourage women to pursue their dreams.
“Effective participation and making progress and positive change are the core values that we have been raised on,” she said.
“I am proud to represent my country, the UAE, where women have not had to struggle to obtain their rights but have always been at the forefront since the establishment of the state.”
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
______________
Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza was honored at the eighth edition of the Arab Women Awards in London. (WAM)
Elsayed’s family spent a year curating her works, as well as that of her husband El Dessouki Fahmi, from between 1960 and 1970.
When art becomes a family affair, each member with their own medium and distinct style, keeping legacies alive becomes a personal and collective mission, in which each of them pays tribute to loved ones while reviving a piece of modern art history. ‘Press Illustrations and Other Works’ is an exhibition in Zamalek’s Picasso Art Gallery that has been curated by graphic designer and filmmaker Alia Ibrahim and her father Ibrahim El Dessouki, who sought to honour the works of his late mother and father, painter and illustrator Attayat Elsayed and El Dessouki Fahmi.
Elsayed and Fahmi were both professional illustrators at the prominent Egyptian newspaper El Masa in the 1960s and 1970s, with Elsayed also contributing to Al Joumhouria newspaper. The family spent a year curating the exhibition, navigating the late painter’s extensive archive with a focus on her press illustrations.
“Our main objective was to exhibit the press illustrations, and then we added a selection of their paintings as well,” Alia Ibrahim tells CairoScene. “The process of finding the sketches for the illustrations, and copies of the newspapers they were published in was extremely difficult, and there are still countless sketches to be found and documented.”
Upon entering the gallery, visitors are met with two halls, one dedicated to Elsayed’s work and the other to Fahmi’s (which includes a portrait of Elsayed herself). Elsayed’s pieces reflect a progressive focus on the mundane, capturing movement through her intricate brush strokes. With the ‘Swing Machine’ and ‘Fan’ pieces – her granddaughter’s favourites – Elsayed spotlights the overlooked items and their constant flow in everyday life.
As an artist herself, Alia credits her late grandmother’s presence and talent to her ability to look at the world from a different perspective, with her abstract paintings becoming an inspiration and lens through which she views her own artistic endeavours. The exhibition is currently running at Zamalek’s Picasso Art Gallery until February 27th.
The fonts, celebrating the Kingdom’s culture, will be available free of charge.
The Ministry of Culture on Monday launched an initiative creating three new Saudi fonts.
The fonts, celebrating the Kingdom’s culture, will be available free of charge to individuals and organizations wishing to use them in design, artistic, and creative works, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The Masmak font has been named after the historic Masmak Fortress, characterized by its durability and strong structure. The font has been described as clear and easy to read and was developed without reference to traditional calligraphy methods, the SPA said.
The second new font, Al-Naseeb, resembles handwritten notes, and has been recommended for use in headlines, texts, literary works, poetry, and children’s stories.
Watad, the third font, was inspired by the tent peg with its letters having curved corners. Its suggested use was for text relating to festivals and sporting events.
The Ministry of Culture launched the initiative in celebration of the Arabic language. In a statement, it said: “It is introducing a unique touch that gives a Saudi identity to Arabic fonts and celebrates Saudi heritage and cultural symbols.”
Saadi Yacef, the Algerian revolutionary leader who fought for his country’s liberation from French colonial rule, died on 10 September 2021. Yacef is perhaps one of the better known of Algeria’s resistance fighters because of the role he played in the creation of the film The Battle of Algiers , directed by the renowned Italian film maker Gillo Pontecorvo.
The Battle of Algiers was filmed in 1965 as a co-production between an Italian creative team and the new Algerian FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) government, whose representative Yacef produced the film and stars as the character of Jaffar.
One of the most extraordinary films ever made, The Battle of Algiers is an emotionally devastating account of the anticolonial struggle of the Algerian people and a brutally candid exposé of the French colonial mindset. Many French people were unhappy with the representation of their army and country in the film. It was not officially censored in France , but the general public and all cinemas boycotted it. It was seen as anti-French propaganda.
In later years, the film was screened to groups classed as revolutionaries and terrorists, apparently becoming a “documentary guidebook” in the Palestinian struggle, and for organisations such as the Irish Republican Army and the Black Panthers, who examined its detailed representation of guerrilla tactics.
It was also shown in the Pentagon in 2003, in the middle of the Iraq War. US Counterterrorism experts Richard Clarke and Mike Sheehan suggest that the film showed how a country can win militarily, but still lose the battle for “hearts and minds”.
What relevance does The Battle of Algiers hold today, 55 years after it was first released?
The message of the film is ultimately one of hope: the oppressed multitude will eventually triumph because their cause is just. The images of revolutionary crowds in the film recall the jerky, grainy footage that has emerged from a wave of recent protests in the last decade, from the Black Lives Matter movement to Extinction Rebellion . Pontecorvo thrillingly captures the power and possibility of large gatherings of citizens, who come together to demand rights, putting their bodies at risk to create social and political change.
Additionally, the film refuses to condemn any of the agents in this conflict. As Pontecorvo has stated
in a war, even if from a historical standpoint, one side is proven right, and the other wrong, both do horrendous things when they are in battle.
A film of contrasts
Shot in black and white, the film is difficult to classify in terms of style. Its military action sequences and tactical montages remind us of films like Zero Dark Thirty and The Eye in the Sky; indeed, it is almost impossible to film a scene of politically-motivated torture without having The Battle of Algiers as an implicit or explicit point of reference.
The collective aspect of the film’s creation, and the socialist ideals that inspired it, link it to what’s called Third Cinema. This was a kind of revolutionary cinema, a cinema of the “Third World”, that was designed to overthrow the systems of colonialism and capitalism.
The Battle of Algiers is also an example of Italian neorealism, a major film movement coming out of mid-twentieth century Italy. The neorealists made films that opposed Mussolini’s fascist regime, and they focused on the hardships of the working class in Italy. Neorealism was a moral and aesthetic system: it brought art and politics together to expose the ills of society and bring about social change.
The Battle of Algiers was shot entirely on location in Algiers, and Colonel Mathieu was the only professional on set. Pontocorvo selected the other actors from the local population based on their faces and expressions.
Other elements of the neorealist style was the use of techniques that create a documentary aesthetic such as the hand-held camera. Pontecorvo also uses extracts from real-life FLN and police communiqués, letters, and title cards. And he used newsreel stock, which was cheaper, but also added to the sense of verisimilitude in the film.
Although he believed the Algerians cause to be just, Pontecorvo wanted to create a nuanced and fair account of the war. Therefore, he sets up a series of contrasts to reflect this opposition between French and Algerian. This is present in the original musical score by Ennio Morricone: while groups of French soldiers rampage through the Casbah to the sound of jaunty military drums and horns, a haunting flute theme accompanies sequences which feature Algerian civilians.
Contrast is also evident in the use of light and shadow: there are strong chiaroscuro effects, perhaps reflecting the themes of right and wrong in the film. Pontecorvo also uses shadow to highlight the covert operations of the Algerians: Ali La Pointe’s face is filmed with deep shadows, and the face of Colonel Mathieu is always brightly lit.
Space provides another important contrast in the film. Frantz Fanon, a famous theorist of the Algerian revolution, describes the colonial world as a world “cut in two” because of the stark divide between the coloniser and the colonised. In The Battle of Algiers, the wide boulevards of the European quarter are juxtaposed to the narrow, winding, labyrinthine alleyways of the Casbah. Space is also divided vertically and horizontally – the European quarter is flat, while the Casbah is steep and sloping.
This opposition of space highlights the gap between rich and poor, coloniser and colonised.
The question of bias
The biggest contrast in the film is of course between the French and Algerians. The embodiment of French and European values in the film is Colonel Mathieu. He is a suave figure, confident and controlled in army fatigues, stylish sunglasses and slick speech – he has more dialogue than other characters in the film. A number of critics have argued that Mathieu is far ‘too cool’, given that he is a practitioner and a proponent of torture.
Yet Colonel Mathieu is not depicted as an ogre: above all, he embodies reason. We see this in his statements about the use of torture, when he uses solid rhetorical devices to justify it. He says:
…do you think France should stay in Algeria? If you do, you have to accept the necessary consequences.
This is persuasive as a logical argument – if you want French Algeria, you have to accept the actions that result in this outcome – torture.
If Mathieu and the French have reason, what do the Algerians have?
Firstly, they have raw, visceral emotion and the power of the group. The victory at the end of the film is a victory of the masses, embodied in two figures – the martyr Ali La Pointe, the illiterate everyman who becomes a hero for the revolution, and the gyrating, anonymous Algerian women, whose gaze outwards to the future closes the film.
This takes me to the final point about what the Algerians have on their side – the power of historical right. We see this through Pontecorvo’s use of chronology – the narrative proceeds as a flashback, until we leap forward in time to the euphoria and mania of the end of the war and the triumph of the revolutionaries. Pontecorvo here glosses over the fact that the real Battle of Algiers was lost by the Algerians, and jumps into a future of eventual victory in the war.
This is how he views the process of history – the masses, with moral right on their side, will eventually win.
Yacef Saadi (R), military leader of the FLN National Liberation Front networks of the autonomous zone of Algiers, poses after being captured at the end of the “Battle of Algiers”. Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images
