Actor Matthew Modine discusses the lesson in the horrors of colonisation, and a gripping realisation of what happens when the people fight back.
Dear Vladimir Putin,
Colonisation doesn’t work.
Sincerely,
The World
If you haven’t seen The Battle for Algiers, you should. So should Vladimir Putin. It’s a very good film that presents the bitter realities of colonisation. The documentary style film is directed and co-written by Gillo Pontecorvo. Upon its release, the film is believed to have inspired liberation wars and further developed urban guerrilla tactics and terrorist style warfare. It also demonstrated that armed struggles for independence by people held down by oppressive forms of government and colonisation could become triumphant in their quests. The film could have empowered organisations like the Black Panthers, Provisional Irish Republican Army, and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. It may also be inspiring for Ukrainian people, now being forced to secure and maintain their own independence.
Distributed in 1966, The Battle for Algiers was a deeper, hyper-realistic cinema experience than audiences had previously experienced. The film brilliantly succeeds in recreating an urgent atmosphere of reality. Perhaps this was because the filmmakers chose to employ non-actors and film in a cinéma vérité, documentary style.
The Battle for Algiers continues to be relevant today. It is on the lists of influential films of so many great filmmakers, because of its strong social impact. Christopher Nolan has commented on it and we can see aspects of The Battle for Algiers within The Dark Knight Rises. For those living within colonised countries in the 1960s, The Battle for Algiers was a painful reflection of that which was too true, too savage, and too inhuman. For those governments continuing to maintain colonies within foreign lands, The Battle for Algiers was a blunt-force example of why foreign occupations ultimately fail. World history makes clear that one culture force-feeding its culture, with its different habits and lifestyles, is simply not possible. The only successful examples are those murderous and violent colonisations which resulted in mass genocide millions of indigenous people.
In 2022, Vladimir Putin is delusional enough to believe that he, and his wrong-minded supporters, can reimagine the failure of colonialism. Today, sane and reasonable people understand that colonialism is heinous, destructive and unacceptable. That era of belligerent behaviour is dead.
Ukraine, like present day Algeria, is a sovereign nation. Putin would have the world think Ukraine is a rogue state governed by fascist Nazis. That’s the pot calling the kettle black. Putin’s war is illegitimate. His feeble justification for war is a lie. With the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, his only strength is his horrendous threat to deploy those weapons.
In 2022, Putin is behaving like so many past settlers arriving on foreign shores. Describing the indigenous people as ignorant savages, Putin is a beast portraying himself as a liberator. His barbaric war is a foolish attempt of neocolonialism—and it will fail. As long as there’s one Ukrainian alive to fight against him, just as it was demonstrated in The Battle for Algiers, that Ukrainians will fight to their death for Ukrainian independence and sovereignty.
The Battle for Algiers should be watched and studied as a modern, present day example of why colonisation does not work and why Putin will fail.
The Battle of Algiers remains a lesson in the horrors of colonisation, and a gripping realisation of what happens when the people fight back, argues the actor Matthew Modine.
Dear Vladimir Putin,
Colonisation doesn’t work.
Sincerely,
The World
