An Interview With Saadi Yacef

Saadi Yacef was an FLN leader during the War of Independence and produced and co-starred in The Battle of Algiers, in which he played himself. (The details of his role as the film's producer are described in David Forgacs’ article above.) Yacef was born in the Algiers casbah in 1928, became involved in nationalist politics in 1945, and was arrested in September 1957. He was imprisoned in Barberousse and sentenced to death. In prison he began writing the memoirs that later became the basis of Pontecorvo's film. Partly thanks to the intervention of Germaine Tillion and partly thanks to the amnesty offered by de Gaulle, his death sentence was commuted, and he was released after independence. He later became a member of the Algerian Senate. The material published here, translated from French and edited by Nicholas Harrison, combines parts of a question and answer session, led by David Forgacs, that took place at the ICA, London, on 8 May 2007, and an interview conducted the following day.1 1Editor's note: I would like to thank those involved with the ICA event, especially Richard Larcombe of The Associates and David Forgacs, for making the interview possible. I am grateful to Richard and to Kevin Durst for providing images. Questions from audience members at the ICA are marked Q

Amnesty · Ancient history · Art · Art history · Battle · Independence (probability theory · Memoir · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Prison · War of independence · African history and culture studies · Classics · History · Law

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