Late Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina overcame bomb threats to become first Arab to win Cannes Palme d'Or

The National

4 days ago

In May 1975, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina became the first Arab and African to win the Palme d'Or, the top honour at the Cannes Film Festival, for Chronicles of the Years of Fire.
It was not just a moment of cinematic triumph for the Algerian filmmaker – who has died aged 95, his family said on Friday – but a testament to his resilience. After all, the screening of Chronicles of the Years of Fire was rife with tension. Lakhdar-Hamina was facing an assassination attempt as the festival received a series of bomb threats for giving the film and the filmmaker a platform.
But what was it about Chronicles that caused such an uproar and made it one of the most politically charged titles to screen at Cannes?
The historical epic is set between the 1930s and 1954, drawing a trajectory of the events that led to the Algerian War of Independence. The film is segmented into six chapters, showing Algeria's road to revolution through the perspective of Ahmed, a peasant who gradually becomes involved in the nationalist struggle against colonial rule.
Each chapter represents a phase in Algeria's political awakening, beginning with drought, poverty and colonial exploitation before culminating in armed resistance and the first flares of the War of Algerian Independence.
Ahmed's personal transformation, along with the experiences of his village, brilliantly depict this blooming political consciousness. As such, Chronicles of the Years of Fire is a portrait of the brutality of colonialism, showing how revolt was a natural result from years of repression and suffering.
Yet, Lakhdar-Hamina made not only a political film, but also a poetic one – with tastefully paced scenes and tableauxesque shots that capture the communal and cultural significance of the moment.
Lakhdar-Hamina drew from his personal background to make Chronicles. The filmmaker was born in 1934 to a peasant family in M'Sila. He studied agriculture and law in French universities. His father was kidnapped, tortured and killed by the French Army during the Algerian War.
In 1958, Lakhdar-Hamina himself deserted the French Army and joined the Algerian resistance in Tunisia. Revolution and the anticolonial struggle was a lived experience, deftly communicated through Chronicles of the Years of Fire.
The political implications of the film were towering for its time. The Algerian War had ended a mere 13 years before Chronicles was screened at Cannes. The conflict marked the end of 130 years of French colonial rule in Algeria, but it was signified by a reshaping of France's global position and identity.
This was a change some segments of French society were not particularly happy with. The film exposed these ruptures, particularly when veterans of Organisation armee secrete – a far-right French paramilitary and terrorist group that opposed Algeria's independence – threatened to bomb the festival and kill Lakhdar-Hamina.
Thankfully, the assassination attempt was not carried out, and Lakhdar-Hamina received his award with the pomp and ceremony he deserved.
Chronicles of the Years of Fire still stands as both a cinematic feat and a political one.
'What prevails is the motivation for the Algerian War,' Lakhdar-Hamina has been quoted as saying in an article that marks the 50th anniversary of the film on the Cannes Film Festival website. 'For young people who have not known this era, this would help them understand, while older people will recognise the truth in what is being told.'
Chronicles of the Years of Fire has endured, as Lakhdar-Hamina intended, as 'a film against injustice, against humiliation', while also being a sharp historical resource. It shows how the Algerian War was not merely a fight for political freedom and land, but also a struggle to reclaim cultural identity and dignity.
Its legacy looms alongside that of the war, which continues to inform relations between France and Algeria, as well as conversations around postcolonial identity and memory.