The SAS (Section Administrative Spécialisée) were created in 1956 by the French army during the Algerian war to pacify "the natives". During the day, the SAS were used as treatment centres and at night as torture centres, in order to crush the Algerian resistance. The SAS were inhabited by French soldiers and auxiliaries (harkis, goumiers) and their families. At independence in 1962, a few families of auxiliaries stayed on; the vacant buildings were occupied by families of martyrs awaiting the better days promised by the new Algeria. 46 years later, the SAS at Laperrine, in the Bouira region, still exists, a unique place inhabited by people who have taken refuge there. They have been joined by farmers fleeing the terrorism of the 90s. They all live as best they can in a place they did not choose, suffering the consequences of war.

The image of French prisoners was very often evoked in Algerian cinema and literature, but until tod...

This excellent feature-length documentary - the story of the imperialist colonization of Africa - is...

Albert Camus died at 46 years old on January 4, 1960, two years after his Nobel Prize in literature....

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Illustrated with archival photographs, animations and live action, this film explores the history an...

“La Voix du Peuple,” composed of archival photographs by René Vauthier and others, exposes the root ...

Charles de Gaulle, the first president (1958-1969) of the Vth Republic, France’s current system of g...

On March 29, 1947, peasants armed with sticks and knives attacked the French garrisons in Madagascar...

"Gerboise bleue", the first French atomic test carried out on February 13, 1960 in the Algerian Saha...

In 1967, Visconti came to Algiers for the filming of The Stranger with Mastroianni and Anna Karina. ...

1962, at the end of the Algerian War, Algerian independence activists are released from Rennes priso...
Achour is thirty. Night and day, he walks. Rebellious soul, he crisscrosses Alger and its neighborho...

Cheikh Djemaï looks back on the genesis of Gillo Pontecorvo’s feature film, The Battle of Algiers (1...

Between 1954-1962, one hundred to three hundred young French people refused to participate in the Al...

In 1973, 6 guides from the National Ski and Mountaineering School (ENSA), including Charles Daubas a...

The Algerian Sahara is the most exceptional deserts. He densifies everything he hosts, men and natur...