Manchester Film Co-operative would like to invite you to a screening of the 1966 war film The Battle of Algiers.

Director Gillo Pontecorvo’s film concerns the violent struggle in the late 1950s for Algerian independence from France, where the film was banned on its release for fear of creating civil disturbances. Certainly, the heady, insurrectionary mood of the film, enhanced by a relentlessly pulsating Ennio Morricone soundtrack, makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. With the advent of the “war against terror” in recent years, the film’s relevance has only intensified.

Shot in a gripping, quasi-documentary style, The Battle of Algiers uses a cast of untrained actors coupled with a stern voiceover. Initially, the film focuses on the conversion of young hoodlum Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) to FLN (the Algerian Liberation Front.) However, as a sequence of outrages and violent counter-terrorist measures ensue, it becomes clear that, as in Eisenstein’s October, it is the Revolution itself that is the true star of the film.

Date: Tuesday, 22nd of October.

Time: Doors at 7.30pm, the film to begin at 7:45pm.

Admission: £3 waged, £2 unwaged/student.

Venue: The Kings Arms, Bloom Street, Salford.

Optional RSVP: Facebook.