Trauma, Cinema and the Algerian War

Guy Austin

doi:10.18573/newreadings.68

Abstract

This article analyses the depiction of the Algerian War in French and Algerian cinema, making use of trauma theory. In particular, Cathy Caruth’s assertions that trauma involves an “inherent latency” and that the most powerful ﬁlmic representations of trauma display “a seeing and a listening from the site of trauma” will be used to explore the ways in which Algerian cinema has engaged with the impact of the conﬂict on the indigenous people. Among the ﬁlms addressed are The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, 1965), Youcef (Chouikh, 1993), and La Maison jaune (Hakkar, 2007). Conclusions are also drawn about the role of cinema in providing images of the recent civil war in Algeria.

Highlights

This article analyses the depiction of the Algerian War in French and Algerian cinema, making use of trauma theory
The feeling of absence that surrounds French filmic representation of the Algerian War can be approached in terms of trauma theory
Cathy Caruth (1995) has termed the temporal dislocation that she identifies within trauma “inherent latency”, writing that “since the traumatic event is not experienced as it occurs, it is fully evident only in connection with another place, and in another time” (8). This might explain why the Algerian conflict has been addressed, forty years after it ended, in a spate of recent French films such as Cache (Haneke, 2005), La Trahison (Faucon, 2006) and Mon colonel (Herbiet, 2006). It reveals a notable tendency in most French films on the war: the trauma has shifted spatially from Algeria to France

Summary

Introduction

This article analyses the depiction of the Algerian War in French and Algerian cinema, making use of trauma theory. The Algerian War in French Cinema: Another Time, Another Place?

Results

Conclusion