CultFilms has confirmed that its newly restored 4K version of Gillo Pontecorvo’s multi award-winning masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, will be released in a Dual Format Edition collector’s set (DVD + UK Blu-ray premiere) on 4 December, 2017.
Digitally remastered in 4K and beautifully restored preserving the grainy, newsreel look that the director Gillo Pontecorvo designed, the restoration was made by the L’Immagine Ritrovata with the participation of the director’s son, cinematographer and director Marco Pontecorvo, in collaboration with CultFilms.
Winner of the Golden Lion at the 1966 Venice Film Festival and nominated for three Oscars® (Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Picture), The Battle of Algiers is a tour de force of world cinema and features a haunting score from maestro Ennio Morricone.
Recreating the Algerian struggle for independence from French occupation this powerful, thought provoking film is one of the most influential political movies of all time, depicting the brutal acts of both sides.
Shot in a gritty documentary style, with remarkable crowd scenes, it features the ground-breaking use of amateur actors including Algerian activists such as Saadi Yacef, all adding to the film’s realism – so much so that the film is used by military organisations including the Pentagon to offer insights in to guerrilla strategy and the effects of foreign occupation.
Special Features:
• New extra on the 4K restoration
• Booklet by Alan O’Leary
• The Making of the Battle of Algiers (interview with Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo)
• The Real Battle of Algiers (interview with producer Saadi Yacef, head of FLN guerrillas in Algiers
• Our War for Freedom (interview with FLN fighter Zohra Drif Bitat)
• Exclusive Presentation by Director Paul Greengrass
• Exclusive interview with Director Ken Loach
