Summary
On September 24, 1957, paratroopers are at a residence—the hiding place of Djafar and Fathima, the female FLN bomber who dyed her hair blonde. They send the woman of the house to go up and tell him to surrender; if he doesn’t, they’ll blow up her house. She goes up and passes on the message. He tells her to tell them to go ahead.
Mathieu sends the woman away and asks the men to prepare explosives and a long fuse. When he sees the fuse has been lit, Djafar agrees to surrender. The scene cuts to him in a car with Mathieu. Mathieu says he’s been after Djafar so long it would have been a shame to have blown him up. The woman shouts in Arabic that there’s still Ali La Pointe.
The scene cuts to Ali strategizing a way to get out of the Casbah with the help of his few companions, including Petit Omar, the young boy he gives instructions to regarding making a distraction with an explosion. In the morning, however, there is the sound of gunfire. Ali and the other men hide behind the wall cut out while the young woman of the house seals the grout and gets into bed in front of the hiding place. The paratroopers come in the room and get her out of bed, sending her and others down the stairs.
The scene takes up where the film’s opening left off. The emaciated man who, when tortured, gave away Ali’s hideout, has tears in his eyes as he watches the French set dynamite and a fuse in front of the tiled wall. Mathieu arrives to talk with Ali through the wall. He implores him to get the others out at least, saying the boy will only be sent to the reformatory. Mathieu sends out the man who informed on Ali. Mathieu gives Ali thirty seconds, telling him he’s already lost. Inside the cavity, Ali asks who wants to go out. Ali says he won’t negotiate.
Outside, the people of the Casbah stand on rooftops with their hands together in prayer and fear. An older General arrives on the scene as paratroopers run down from the hide out. Ali holds the boy as the charge detonates, destroying the building. Mathieu sends a cameraman and soldier into the smoking rubble while he walks off with the General, smoking a cigarette and discussing how the head of the FLN is dead now.
On December 11, 1960, Algerians stream through the streets in an uprising. The civilians wave green and white independence flags in protest against the French colonial government. Journalists report on how the uprising has erupted after two years of quiet. The French police are outnumbered and easily pushed back by the crowds, even as they fire weapons at the civilians. A journalist speaks of an attempt made to break into the European Quarter that resulted in many deaths. In a night shot, a chorus of unison noise is heard.
There is footage of French tanks driving into crowds of protesting civilians, who move out of the way only to reform and engage in hand combat with French police. On the 21st of December, 1960, it is the “last day of demonstrations.” Out of a haze of smoke, a group chants and moves toward the French.
The camera lingers on the faces of many young women and men. They are represented in at least equal numbers, and several women lead the wave that moves toward the police. When the police push back, the women push forward again, gaining ground and waving green and white flags in the faces of the colonial police. The film ends with a voiceover stating: “Two more years of struggle were still to pass. Then, on July 2, 1962, independence was won and the Algerian nation was born.”
Analysis
Having captured M’Hidi, Mathieu’s next high-level capture is Djafar and Fathima, who agree to surrender after seeing that Mathieu isn’t joking about blowing them up in place, even if it means destroying the home of the woman who let them hide. Fathima shows her contempt for Mathieu by shouting at him that he still hasn’t captured Ali. The statement has a note of dramatic irony given the opening scene of the film: the viewer knows Mathieu will track him down too.
Even though he is the last remaining head of the FLN who hasn’t been captured or killed, Ali continues to plot from hiding, believing he can still outwit the French. However, the tortured man from the first scene in the film leads Mathieu and his soldiers to Ali’s hiding place behind a tiled section of wall. In a show of solidarity, Ali’s accomplices behind the wall agree with his decision not to negotiate with Mathieu. Rather than surrender and risk being tortured into giving over information that puts other FLN affiliates at risk, Ali and the people hiding with him stoically accept their death.
The tense standoff ends with Mathieu blowing up the building in which Ali hides. A somber occasion for the people of the Casbah, Mathieu walks off with a casual confidence, smoking and talking with a military general. Their conversation suggests that Mathieu is proud to have eliminated the heads of the FLN. However, he does not address the damage his actions have wrought upon his cause.
Over the course of the conflict, the people of Algeria have shifted their support away from the French and over to the FLN, whose leaders have become martyrs in the struggle for independence, willing to give over their lives to better the lives of the Algerian people. Outside Algeria, public opinion within the international community has also moved away from being on France’s side, having learned through media reports of Algeria’s willingness to risk everything for freedom from colonial occupation.
Pontecorvo ends the film by showing the aftermath of the events depicted to that point.
Although the elimination of the FLN heads is followed by two years of relative quiet, the revolution is not over. In December 1960, a cross-section of the Algerian population flood the streets in demonstrations against the colonial government. They wave the Algerian flag and overpower French police. In a show of solidarity, those who aren’t on the streets make noise in unison from their homes at night. Pontecorvo concludes the movie with images that focus on the faces of women leading the demonstrations against police. While the FLN heads were men, these images emphasize how women were integral to the ongoing revolutionary struggle that finally brought about Algerian independence in 1962 after one hundred and twenty years as a French colony.
