Biopic explores the life and legacy of Frantz Fanon, a century after his birth
Soldier, psychiatrist, philosopher... who was Frantz Fanon? A new film by director Jean-Claude Barny seeks to answer that question in a year that marks a century since the birth of one of the most influential figures in 20th-century anti-colonial thought.
Barny, who hails from Guadeloupe, said it was important to understand Fanon's Caribbean culture, his Western culture, his African culture, but also to view him as a man "capable of absorbing all cultures" – and of detaching himself from them too.
"I started reading everything I could get my hands on and looking at everything I could about Fanon. I had a kind of [binge] of curiosity, of information, of pedagogy, to be able to understand what I was going to do with it and why," Barny told RFI, ahead of the film's release in French cinemas on 2 April.
Born on 20 July 1925, in Fort-de-France, Martinique, Fanon led a colourful life. He was a soldier in the French liberation army fighting the Nazis, then a young doctor in training in Lyon in the 1950s.
His exposure to racism in these environments became the basis for his first major book, Black Skin, White Masks, published in 1952.
'Paris Noir' exhibition showcases work made in French capital by black artists
In his film Fanon, which took 10 years to make, Barny chose to explore a critical chapter of Fanon's life; his time as head psychiatrist in Blida, a small town in Algeria 45km south-west of Algiers, between 1953 and 1960.
Read more on RFI EnglishRead also:The night of rebellion that changed France and Algeria forever'Paris Noir' exhibition showcases work made in French capital by black artistsAlgeria's colonial past still haunts 60 years after independence
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