Since its release in 1966, The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo has divided critical opinion. The film which depicts the Algerian struggle for independence received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1966 and was nominated a year later for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Despite this success, the inherently controversial film was banned in France until 1971 due to its graphic depiction of torture and repression during the war. Heavily influenced by the distinctive cinematic style of neorealism, the politically engaged director sought to make a film produced and shot in a "dictatorship of truth." This neorealist aesthetic (handheld camera, non-professional actors) rendered such an extraordinarily accurate reflection of social reality that the film's original American distributor inserted the disclaimer: "Not a single foot of news or film documentary was used. » This analysis will explore these cinematic techniques employed by Pontecorvo in a short sequence and examine their effects on our understanding of the issues and themes raised in the film. The chosen sequence comes a few moments after the revelation by an old Algerian nationalist of the whereabouts of the last member of the FLN, Ali La. Pointe. The French military, determined to suppress the Independent Movement, stormed the Casbah and eventually located “the tapeworm’s head” behind a tiled wall. This sequence therefore actually begins at the end of the story in the year 1957, the complex temporal structure appears clearly as we regress to the year 1954, here the film traces the transformation of Ali La Pointe from petit criminal into nationalist martyr. Film of contrasts / Simplicity of France against Algeria In the opening shot, the FLN and the French...... middle of paper ...... French neighborhoods and poverty of the Casbah in the previous sequence, between the European youth and Ali La Pointe, visually justifies Ali's rebellion. When the police arrive, Ali runs away until; he is tripped by a young Frenchman who in turn receives a brutal punch from Ali. France against Algeria represented by the protagonists Ali La Pointe and Colonial Mathieu. A voiceover lists Ali's criminal record as a petty criminal and his past as a boxer, thief, and thug. . The image that accompanies the story is a close-up of Ali under arrest, walking with the police officer. The music is Arabic. The scene is then paralleled by the arrival of Mathieu parading in front of saluting French people while the narrator intones a description of Mathieu's exploits. Due to the Italian-Algerian co-production, it can be said that Pontecorvo gives the FLN the status of victim..