Chronicle of the Years of Fire

This epic semi-autobiographical film recounting the Algerian uprising won its director the first Palme d’or in Cannes for an African film: ‘I tried to recount, with dignity and nobility, this uprising that then became the Algerian Revolution, (…) I looked inside myself for the honesty of a child, the eyes of the child I once was.’(Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina).

The story spans over a period of more than 15 years – from drought, famine, typhoid, through the Second World War. The post-war status quo is shown to be maintained through manipulation and repression, but also confronted through organised anti-colonial resistance, and the repression in French prisons, which is regarded as the starting date of the Algerian revolution.