Sixty years after end of the war in March 1962, the ambitious documentary series At War(s) for Algeria retraces one of the most traumatic colonial conflicts of the 20th century. Using archival footage and the intimate experiences of those who lived through it, in France and in Algeria, it brings together the lives of all the witnesses and confronts their perceptions of the events and their emotions.
Discover the interview between Unifrance and Anne Genevaux, the series' producer, and Elsa Lonne-Smith, international development manager at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA).
Unifrance: Can you tell us about the genesis of the project? What context does the documentary fall within?
Anne Genevaux: It arose from a common desire of ARTE France and INA to retrace the history of the final colonial conflict, which left a lasting mark on French and Algerian societies, as well as on the individuals of our two countries. On both sides of the Mediterranean, the war affected the trajectories of civilians and soldiers, women and men. It changed the lives of millions of them. These people, with their histories and experiences, sometimes radically opposed, are today mostly between 75 and 90 years old. We were convinced that we had to give a face to these destinies, that it was urgent to make their voices heard and create a dialog between them. Beyond their account of the war, we wanted the witnesses to tell us about their childhood, families, and backgrounds, in order to understand the context in which the war came about and the context in which it broke out in their lives. It was therefore necessary to conduct long-term interviews. At INA, we are used to these large-scale interviews, since we have already produced series of testimonies from women and men whose thoughts, experiences, and work have marked the 20th and 21st centuries (Paroles d'historiens, Mémoires de la danse, Mémoires du théâtre, Mémoires de la Shoah, to mention just a few).
Moreover, if the Algerian War of Independence had already given rise to many documentaries, the majority of them focused on a particular population or a specific aspect of the conflict.
Our objective here was to privilege the diversity of points of view, to make multiple words coexist. The witnesses were chosen with a view to multiplying the types of experience, according to age and gender, location and activities during the war.
Sixty years after Algeria's independence, how does the series look at this plural war?
AG: We wanted the series to benefit from the recent historiography of the last 10 years. It was important to point out through this series all the specificities of this atypical conflict: that of a war waged in a colonial situation to maintain an essential possession of the French empire (unlike the Vietnam War, for example), that of an asymmetrical conflict that opposed two camps with unequal forces in terms of men and materials, that of a war of political sovereignty, and above all that of a war composed of an interlocking of multiple conflicts: On the French side, to return to the uprising of those who felt abandoned and betrayed by the French political leaders, and on the Algerian side, to recall the rivalry between the two independence parties (FLN and MNA) to lead the fight for independence.
What message did you want to convey through this documentary? To which target audience?
AG: We didn't want this series to favor one memory over another. We wanted to tell the story of this war "from below," so that the witnesses, whatever their background, ideas, origins, or role, would immerse us in their daily experience of the war. We wanted to pass on this history to those who have inherited it and who know little or nothing about it. Let us remember that even today, more than seven million French people, on French soil, are directly impacted by this war. What narrative do we want to pass on to the post-war generations, which are still imbued with myths and numerous prejudices? The responsibility towards the younger generations in particular is enormous. And it is the same on the Algerian side. Algerian youth today raises many questions that often remain unanswered. The War of Independence is not always talked about in all its complexity.
The documentation research for the series is vast. How did you go about carrying out this project and collaborating with historians??
AG: It was imperative to benefit from the expertise of historians, headed by Raphaëlle Branche co-author fo the series.
But of course, we also called upon historians, journalists, and documentary filmmakers who had been led, in their professional careers, to question the Algerian War. We entrusted them with the responsibility of conducting the interviews of the sixty-six witnesses. We also called upon a committee of historians, French, Algerian, German, English... Each of them had his or her own specialty: FLN, OAS, PCA, propaganda... They watched and criticized, which was absolutely necessary to avoid the slightest biais.
Did the Covid-19 pandemic impact on your project? How did you manage to resume filming?
AG: We had fortunately been able to conduct some initial interviews in June 2019 in our Bry-sur-Marne studios. When Covid arrived, we had to review the whole shooting organization, not only in France, but of course in Algeria. Some people who had agreed to come and testify have unfortunately been impacted by the disease. But among those who had gone through this first health crisis, none had given up, to our great surprise! So when filming resumed in France in the summer of 2020, we put in place draconian filming measures to protect all these vulnerable witnesses. However, we were not able to go to Algeria. Fortunately, from the beginning of the project, we had decided to entrust the executive production of the film shoot to the company Akham Films, based in Algiers. But the team did more than that! They looked for new witnesses by activating their local networks. As we had done in France, the team over there conducted a series of pre-interviews to prepare the witnesses in several Algerian cities. We had to urgently recruit historians and journalists to conduct these interviews over the long term. Those whom we had trained in Paris in memory gathering and filmed interviews could no longer travel to Algeria. We therefore organized this training at a distance. Raphaëlle Branche accompanied them in the preparation of their interviews. As for the filming, we followed them live, also remotely, via WhatsApp, which allowed the director Rafael Lewandowski and Raphaëlle Branche to ask the interviewers to return to a particular question when it seemed necessary.
At the beginning, you imagined a four-episode format, but the project grew to six episodes and left room for the expression of the witnesses' emotions...
AG: The work was complex because a number of parameters had to be taken into account. On the one hand, the time it takes for a witness to speak is not the same as that of an expert who is used to expressing himself in front of a camera. The women and men who speak are stirring up their memories, searching for words, emotions are surfacing... This type of story requires time. Moreover, the multitude of views and experiences was extremely important, and this diversity was at the heart of the project, so we had to be able to pass over the microphone to a maximum of – sometimes divergent – voices.
We also had to give the viewers the keys to the course of the war so that they could take into account what was at stake, understand what played out on the terrain, and put into context this or that event related by a witness.
Moreover, although the series couldn't do without the major dates that marked the conflict, the developments in historical research and the unpublished words of our witnesses allowed, for the first time, to open the chronological compass, to re-evaluate the weight of certain events, to retrace the war in all its characteristics.
All this requires time to narrate. Arte understood this and accepted that the series would run to six episodes instead of four... which, for a broadcaster, implies programming complications, but they did it! And even with six episodes, we were sometimes forced to skip over some events, much to our regret.
You have received support from many partners such as PROCIREP, BBC News Arabic, and veterans associations. How did this come about?
AG: The fact that we set out on the production of this series with a development period was beneficial. During this phase, we gathered a first twenty interviews, which already constituted a rather interesting panel of testimonies. The remarkable quality of these plural memories confirmed that our approach was the right one. We quickly produced a first three-minute trailer, selected a few excerpts which allowed us, beyond a purely theoretical intention, to make its feasibility palpable.
Elsa Lonne Smith: All the partners were quickly convinced by our proposal to tell this story through the voices of those who had directly experienced it. Moreover, our proposal came at the right time. As many of our witnesses told us, ten years ago, they might not have agreed to share their memories with us, they were not ready. Today, for them, it became necessary, even urgent, to speak.
The interest of BBC News Arabic, in particular, was a pleasant surprise. We wanted this series to be accessible from Algeria. Via the Algerian national channel, it was impossible. It was a real challenge for us because BBC News Arabic had not yet opened its schedule to history documentaries, and even less to series. For this project, they broke through these two barriers!
One of the difficulties we faced was that we approached all partners with a 4x52 minute series. Support was granted on this basis. So the move to six episodes didn't benefit from additional funding. We even thought for a moment of losing BBC News Arabic and Histoire TV, which had also pre-bought the series. Two more episodes would necessarily have an impact on their schedule. But they stayed!
You have organized the first screenings, what were the first reactions? What are your ambitions for the series' international distribution?
ELS: The series has been very well received, especially by the witnesses who participated in this adventure. It was important that they could see that their words had been respected, which for some was a legitimate concern when it came to extracting a tiny part of their entire testimony. Other viewers were impressed by the incredible archives we found, especially the amateur archives that resonate with the intimate stories of the films' protagonists. Many appreciated the decision we made to devote a large part of the first episode to exposing the colonial situation, to tell the story of the rise of nationalist sentiment among the Algerian population in order to understand how we got to November 1, 1954. And above all, we think that the audience understood our approach, which was to take an ideology-free look at a complex human story. The youngest viewers liked the rhythm of the narration, surprised to learn so much and to understand more acutely what played out during this war. And for many, whatever their age or background, many prejudices were shattered.
Internationally, thanks to BBC News Arabic, we have successfully fulfilled our first challenge! At War(s) for Algeria will be broadcast from July in Algeria and in the Middle East in Arabic. We are also working to ensure that the series finds its place on digital platforms and in international festivals in this year marking 60 years since the end of the conflict. We are offering an English version and presenting the series in international markets.
Far from being a solely Franco-Algerian conflict, the Algerian War has marked post-1945 international society and has had an influence on the wars that followed. The testimonies, the human dimension of the conflict, and the stakes evoked can resonate with many and make the series accessible to everyone in the world.