Tahar Hannache, The Desert Divers, 1952
Black and white / French version / 21 min
Algeria
2K restoration (2024) from a 16mm positive print preserved by the Benelhannache family
Project lead: Nabil Djedouani / Algerian Cinema Digital Archives
Scan: Cinémathèque de Saint-Étienne
Image restoration: Nadim Kamel
Sound restoration: Monzer El Hachem
Distribution rights: Thourya Benelhannache
Tahar Hannache (1898–1972) is a pioneering figure in Algerian cinema. Born in Constantine into a wealthy family, he developed an early interest in the arts and mechanics before discovering cinema. After being demobilized in France in 1920, he began his career in 1922 as an extra in L’Atlantide by Jacques Feyder. He quickly rose through the ranks: actor alongside stars such as Fernandel and Jean Gabin, then technician—camera operator, cinematographer, director of photography—collaborating with prestigious filmmakers such as Marcel Pagnol and Julien Duvivier. In 1938, he founded his production company, Tahar Films, and established himself as a director.
After Algerian independence, he helped train the first generation of national film technicians at the Algerian Radio Television (RTA), leaving a lasting legacy until his death in 1972.
His film The Desert Divers (1952), shot in southern Algeria, is a major work considered the first fully Algerian fiction film—produced, directed, and performed by Algerians, notably featuring Himoud Brahimi in the lead role. The film depicts the daily lives of well diggers in the South, these “divers” risking their lives to clear blocked wells, before the arrival of modern machinery that marks the end of their profession.
Beyond its subject, the film stands out for its technical quality and symbolic significance: it celebrates an authentic Algeria, far from colonial clichés, while asserting a cultural identity. Suppressed by the colonial authorities, who saw this autonomous production as a threat, The Desert Divers anticipates Algerian resistance cinema. A few months before the outbreak of the 1954 Revolution, it embodies an act of cultural sovereignty, making Tahar Hannache a visionary pioneer of Algerian cinema.
Boubaker Adjali, From Earth to the Moon, 1977
Color / English version / 37 min
Algeria
2K restoration (2023) from a 16mm positive print
Project lead: Nabil Djedouani / Algerian Cinema Digital Archives
Scan: TOP DISC
Image restoration: Vanessa Helou
Sound restoration: Nabil Djedouani
Color grading: Candice Perez
Distribution rights: Chaouki Adjali
Boubaker Adjali (1937–2007) was an Algerian photographer, filmmaker, and anti-colonial revolutionary. Born in Meskiana, Algeria, he left school to join the FLN during the war of independence. Injured during an operation in France, he was evacuated to East Germany, then studied film at the prestigious FAMU in Prague. After Algerian independence in 1962, he held positions within the FLN but distanced himself from power after Boumédiène’s coup in 1965. Based in New York from 1967, he became a correspondent for Africasia and supported liberation movements in Africa and Asia (ANC, MPLA, FRETILIN, etc.) through documentaries and photography. A polyglot and committed artist, he died in New York in 2007.
From Earth to the Moon is a documentary focused on economic and geopolitical issues, particularly the new global economic order and the exploitation of raw materials in Third World countries, with a focus on Algeria. The film reflects his militant practice, using cinema as a tool to denounce colonial and postcolonial injustices.
Atteyat Al Abnoudi, Mud Horse, 1970
2K digitisation of a subtitled French circulation print, 12 min
Egypt
Digitisation: Jean-Philippe Bessas
Image restoration: Amal Shafek, Marwan Taiel, Marwan Moaffak, Ahmed Hossam, Ahmed Yehia
Collection: Braquage (France)
Distribution rights: Asmaa Al Taher
In one of her earliest and most poignant works, documentary veteran Ateyyat El Abnoudy captures the dignity of the poor of Cairo.
P. Saumade, The Well of Fortune, 1960s
2K digitisation of a 16mm reversal original, 24 min. Silent
Algeria, France
Digitisation: Polygone étoilé
Collection: Atelier du 7e Art (Frédéric Rolland)
Distribution rights: Atelier du 7e Art
Film by a conscript of the Algerian War.
Travelogues are films shot by travellers. These amateur films document geographies and periods that transmit history by becoming archives. The private collection of Atelier du 7e Art (Dornecy, France) preserves and safeguards a little-recognised amateur heritage, which nevertheless sometimes offers rare images—such as this striking footage shot in Algeria by a French conscript during the Algerian War of Independence.
Eliane and Pierre Brossier, Yemen, 1970s
2K digitisation, double Super 8, 70 min
France
Digitisation: Polygone étoilé
Collection: Atelier du 7e Art
Distribution rights: Atelier du 7e Art
Eliane and Pierre Brossier donated the amateur films they created to Frédéric Rolland of Atelier du 7e Art. These sound films shot on double Super 8 and Kodachrome film, such as Yemen, are precious documents from the 1970s, filmed off the beaten path, where, for example, child labour can be seen.