Boubaker Adjali, De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon), 1977

Project sponsor: Nabil Djedouani / Digital Archives of Algerian Cinema

Boubaker Adjali (1937-2007) was an Algerian photographer, filmmaker and anti-colonial revolutionary. Born in Meskiana, Algeria, he dropped out of high school to join the FLN during the War of Independence. Wounded in action in France, he was exfiltrated to the GDR, where he studied cinema at Prague's prestigious FAMU. After Algerian independence in 1962, he held positions within the FLN, but withdrew from power after Boumediène's coup d'état in 1965. Settling in New York in 1967, he became a correspondent for Africasia, supporting liberation movements in Africa and Asia (ANC, MPLA, Fretlin, etc.) through his documentaries and photographs. Polyglot and committed, he died in New York in 2007.

De la terre à la lune is a documentary directed by Boubaker Adjali, focusing on economic and geopolitical issues, notably the new world economic order and the exploitation of raw materials in Third World countries, with a special focus on Algeria. The film is part of his activist oeuvre, in which he uses cinema as a tool to denounce colonial and post-colonial injustices.