Cheikh Djemaï looks back on the genesis of Gillo Pontecorvo's feature film, The Battle of Algiers (1965). Through archive images, extracts from the film and interviews with personalities, the filmmaker retraces the journey of a major work - from the events of the Algiers Casbah (1956-1957) to the presentation of the Lion of 'Or causing the anger of the French delegation in Venice - which left its mark as much in the history of cinema as in that of Algeria.

The Battle of Algiers, the imprint is interested in the relationship between history and cinema in the work of Gillo Pontecorvo, showing the reciprocity between reality and fiction such as the capture of Yacef Saadi for example, seen by the television news of the era and by an extract from the film. The documentary underlines the "absolute quest for the truth" desired by Pontecorvo, collecting stories from both Algerians such as the work written by Saadi in 1962, and French stories through the oral testimonies of the paratroopers, in order to construct a factual story beyond all censorship. The torture used by the French army and shown in the film was one of the reasons for its ban until 2004.

Finally, Cheikh Djemaï questions the historical legacy left by The Battle of Algiers in the Algerian collective consciousness. He notes that fiction has supplanted history, on the predominant role of Algiers compared to the rest of the country in the war led by the FLN for example, or even on the place of Ali La Pointe, a figure of the Resistance whose the symbolic importance rests entirely on the film.

http://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1244597-la-bataille-d-alger-l-empreinte