Summary
The Algerian men rounded up from the Casbah are brought into rooms one at a time for the soldiers to interrogate them. There is a bucket of water. The French record confessions of FLN members while Mathieu adds names to his triangle diagram, working his way to the chief. On day six of the strike, Algerian men are returned to the Casbah as a French official speaks over a loudspeaker encouraging the people of the area to not obey the FLN. A boy then takes the microphone and unwinds the cable from the booth. He hides around a corner, telling the people that Algeria will be free. People stop walking and make sounds of approval.
On February 5, 1957, the French physically abuse Algerian shop owners, making them open the shutters on their buildings. A voiceover comments on the UN General Assembly making no direct intervention in Algeria. There is footage of French soldiers handing out food to children and women in the Casbah while playing marching music and walking alongside donkeys carrying the food on their backs. Some take the food, others reject it.
In a strategic meeting, Mathieu says they must stay in the Casbah 24 hours a day. He compares the FLN to a tapeworm, saying you can kill thousands of its segments but it will stay alive until you kill its head. He says the FLN is run only by several members—the heads—and then passes out photos. Among them are M’Hidi, Ali, and Djafar. He says to print a thousand copies and distribute them to their soldiers.
The scene cuts to Ali and Djafar and other FLN members hiding behind a wall. There is sound of French paratroopers questioning a woman about who lives there. When it is safe to get out, Ali goes to the window and listens to the French announce over loudspeakers the names of FLN members they have arrested. They tell the people of the Casbah that the FLN has fallen and it is time to work with them instead.
Djafar leads a meeting to propose they split up and find people to replace the arrested. He says they must keep changing hideouts as well. He also suggests they move forward by changing tactics. The scene cuts to several of the men, including Ali, posing as women under white burkas. They open fire on a group of paratroopers who notice the disguise. Ali and Djafar run through the labyrinthine walkways until they find a home to take refuge in. The women inside allow them to descend down a water well’s rope. One of the women listens at the door as the French pass. At the bottom of the well, Djafar makes plans to inform other sectors.
The scene cuts to later in the month as bombs go off at a horse race. A frightened-looking Algerian boy working selling snacks is attacked by French men and women, saying he’ll pay for the others. The scene cuts to a press conference being held at Mathieu’s strategy office. Ben M’Hidi is there in handcuffs to pose in photographs alongside Mathieu and take questions from journalists about the FLN’s terrorist tactics. He says they’ll give up their women’s baskets when they have planes to drop bombs, like the French and the Americans. M’Hidi is led out with a smirk on his face.
At another press conference, a journalist asks Mathieu about M’Hidi hanging himself in his cell by making a rope out of his shirt. Mathieu says he admires M’Hidi’s commitment to his principles. One journalist asks for more precise answers. Mathieu says torture doesn’t appear in their orders; only interrogation. He justifies their actions by saying that if they don’t get information out of suspects quickly, the FLN will have time to make any information they extract useless by being out of date.
Mathieu complains that everyone wanted the rebellion crushed when they are called in; now they are being smeared in the media as Nazis and fascists, but some of them are survivors of concentration camps. He says, “We are soldiers. Our duty is to win. Thus, to be quite clear, I’ll ask you a question myself. Must France stay in Algeria? If the answer’s still ‘yes,’ then you must accept what that entails.”
The scene cuts to paratroopers torturing Algerian men with waterboarding, blowtorches, hanging from medieval-looking pull devices, and clipping car batteries to their earlobes to electrocute them. Algerian women watch with tears in their eyes. The scene then cuts to FLN members driving a stolen ambulance through the city and opening fire out the window on civilians. The shooter and driver crash into a bus stop, killing themselves while trying to run down a group of people.
The scene cuts to Mathieu arriving in the Casbah to negotiate a standoff. Two armed FLN members try to get him to come closer to them. They say they’ll surrender and lower their weapons in a basket if they have a written promise of a fair trial. Mathieu agrees and starts writing in a notebook. Meanwhile, the men set a time bomb set for sixty seconds in a basket. They lower it out a window on a rope while a soldier steps forward with the note. The bomb explodes in his face, creating a cloud of dust and rubble. Presumably, the blast kills some of Mathieu’s soldiers and the FLN members who set it.
Analysis
Pontecorvo introduces the theme of torture with sequences hinting at Mathieu’s illegal approach to interrogation. Having rounded up Algerian men for questioning, Mathieu and his men bring the Algerians into rooms for questioning. The image of a bucket full of water suggests that the French are using a torture method (or variation of it) known as waterboarding: it involves strapping a victim to an angled board and pouring water over their face to induce the sensation of drowning. Mathieu appears satisfied with his methods, however, as he begins filling out his triangulated diagram of the FLN structure, discovering more names of people affiliated with the organization.
Pontecorvo builds on the theme of solidarity with the scene in which a boy steals the microphone the French use for making announcements in the Casbah. As the men return to their homes having likely undergone torture at the hands of the French, the French fill their eardrums with anti-FLN and pro-colonialist propaganda. However, the boy sneaks off with the mic, risking his safety to shout the FLN’s slogans. In an expression of solidarity, the Algerians perk up and make sounds of approval, showing that their independent spirits have not been broken despite the brutality of the French military.
As time passes, Mathieu’s campaign against the FLN intensifies with continued torture of Algerian citizens and full-time military occupation of the Casbah, which has turned into a war zone. His methods prove effective: Mathieu collects enough information from tortured Algerians to discover the names of the heads of the different FLN sectors. This prompts those FLN heads to discuss their need for a new strategy while they are in hiding. To show that the FLN has not died, as the French claim over loudspeakers, FLN members disguise themselves as women and open fire on paratroopers. They also plant a bomb at a horse race in the city.
In a major victory for the French, Mathieu captures FLN cofounder Ben M’Hidi. M’Hidi is calm and collected as he addresses the press following his arrest. Rather than show fear, M’Hidi—who understands the importance of the media’s influence in swaying public opinion—respectfully answers questions about his group’s terrorism by suggesting that they are only considered terrorists because they don’t have the resources of a military like the French or Americans.
In an instance of situational irony, the next scene shows another press conference in the same location. Now, the press are asking about M’Hidi’s suspicious death while in custody. In real-life, M’Hidi was killed six months after his capture, likely while being tortured. In the film, Mathieu acts as if he died by suicide, even though Islam forbids suicide.
The scene is also significant because it shows how the media have turned against Mathieu, no longer reporting positively of his actions but now looking for answers about his rumored use of torture. Mathieu reprimands the journalists for betraying him in this way, stating plainly that they must accept his illegal and immoral practices if they wish for Algeria to remain a French colony. With this scene, Pontecorvo shows how despite the losses suffered by the FLN, public opinion is shifting in the FLN’s favor.
