Cristian Andronic Professor Vandiver WRI 144, Empire and International Relation Due: Oct 21, 2013.

Film features developing motive and argument in Lumumba and Battle of Algiers

The war film The Battle of Algiers had a peculiar cast. Gillo Pontecorvo, director and writer, chose to shot it entirely with non-professional actors, with the sole exception of Col. Mathieu.1 Thus, the cast was comprised of Algerians Pontecorvo met in Algiers, chosen primarily by the features and impact these would have on the audience. However, given the highly dramatic message of the film, one can easily imagine that it was at times hard to convey the intense unrest and struggle by relying solely on a non-professional cast. Gillo Pontecorvos solution proved to be quite ingenious. Pontecorvo chose to use indigenous Algerian drumming instead of usual dialogue during shooting and bombing scenes in order to effectively convey their disturbing nature. Thus, as FLN militants drive around the streets of Algiers, the drumming sounds induce us into a state of hallucinatory and dreamlike perception, so as to prepare us of what is about follow. When the militants engage in open fire towards civilians, the drums have the effect of blending the desperate actions of the militants into the pulse of the city, rendering the whole of Algiers its state of infernal unrest. Peter Matthews, "The Battle of Algiers: Bombs and Boomerangs", in The Battle of Algiers booklet accompanying the Criterion Collection DVD release, p. 8
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Cristian Andronic Professor Vandiver WRI 144, Empire and International Relation Due: Oct 21, 2013. What particularly strikes about the film is its impartial perspective on the combatants of the war. Thus, both sides are depicted with their moral and immoral decisions. The film aims to show that the line between the attacker and the victim is blurred, both parties being engaged in repressive practices. The sound makes this uniformity more vivid, highlighting the harshness of the war.

In the film Lumumba, the voice of Lumumba after his assassination is present both in the first and last scenes of the film and plays a key role. In the beginning, we see three corpses being unburied and then burnt. The voice of Lumumba narrates the scene and introduces us to the motive of the film: why were they so afraid of Lumumba, even after his death? The image of the scorching fire together with his voice brings up the picture of a phoenix. In the very next scene, the viewer is brought back to the beginning, the first days of Lumumba as a founder of the Mouvement national congolais. Through his voice, Lumumba mobilized thousands of people to oppose the secession of the Katanga province. By the end of the film, after the entire proceeding of his capturing, containment and assassination, we might falsely believe that Lumumba was removed. However, the last scene of his body being set ablaze, yet his voice being present, serene and unaffected, shows us that Lumumba was not a momentary episode in the history of Congo, but that he will continue to inspire generations, many years after his death.