Browse 3 movies from Ministère de la Culture et des Arts
In this film, four key witnesses, who live in Algeria today, as full-fledged Agerians, show us what this colonization was really like, so "beneficial" that they themselves perceived it as the oppression of one people by another. Three of them, who today would be called "pieds noirs," in other words, those Europeans to whom France, the occupying power, gave the best land, taken from the indigenous populations, work, and exclusive rights, not shared by the entire population, lived rather well compared to the majority of the "natives." The fourth was far from all that and lived in Argentina. Annie Steiner, Felix Colozzi, Pierre Chaulet, and Roberto Muniz explain to us what led them to show solidarity with the struggle of the weak, the humiliated, and to risk their freedom and their lives by committing to liberate Algeria.
Jan 2012
Écran Colonial (Colonial Screen) is a documentary by Salim Aggar that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the visual history of French colonization in Algeria: propaganda through imagery. The result of three years of archival research, the film explores the operations of the Service Cinématographique des Armées (SCA—Military Film Service) and the Service de Diffusion Cinématographique (SDC—Film Distribution Service) during the period spanning from the 1940s until independence in 1962. Salim Aggar reveals how the colonial authorities used "cinema trucks" to screen films outdoors in the heart of Algerian villages—a tactic designed to manipulate public opinion, glorify the empire, and distort social and political realities, particularly following the outbreak of the War of National Liberation. Ultimately, however, this attempt at mass indoctrination proved a failure, as the Algerians turned this media weapon against its creators to assert their own narrative of liberation.
Nov 2025
Docufiction about Mouloud Feraoun, an author who upholds the great values of the Universal Man. It is in the name of man that Feraoun stands up against injustice. It is in the name of man that he is tormented by war. Feraoun is a solitary creator who suffers to the point of wishing for liberating madness. It is through his work that the portrait of a humble and discreet author, a talented writer and convictions emerges. Most of the time, I let him talk about himself in simple and fair words. I compile his moments of hope, worry, dreams and fears. During all my research, a generous and good Mouloud Feraoun stood out to me who did not hesitate to expose an inhuman and shameful colonial system. His clear and straightforward voice echoes the cry of a people from whom he has never separated.
Jan 2009
