PUBLIC LECTURE: Terrorism and the Algerian Struggle for Independence: an interpretation Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (Italy-Algeria 1966)

The Institute of Advanced Studies and the History Discipline at UWA present a series of ten public lectures attached to a new History Honours seminar. The series aims to present a context for contemporary terrorism by inviting lectures from scholars working on historical and contemporary terrorism movements. The lectures are open to all with an interest in political and social movements and their methodologies and repercussions.

Abstract: This paper examines Gillo Pontecorvo's controversial film The Battle of Algiers. It seeks to understand the way in which terror is granted legitimacy in the colonial context and looks at the techniques used in the film to subvert conventional approaches to this explosive subject.

Biographical note: Daniela Baratieri is currently completing a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence on the memory of Italian colonialism. She has published on the contemporary construction of European identity and on the re-edition of Fascist film in post war Italy.

Giuseppe Finaldi teaches European history at UWA. His research focuses on Italy's experience of empire and he is currently writing a book on Italian Fascism.

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