At the dawn of the Algerian independence struggle, René Vautier produced a film about the French conquest of Algeria in 1830. It was severely criticized by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which regarded this prediction of an Algerian rebellion against the foreign oppressor as a danger to national security. In reaction to this accusation, in 1957 René Vautier went over to the "other side" and shot, camera in hand, a film about and with the Algerian resistance movement. René Vautier wanted to show what he saw and counter the French colonial propaganda version. Naturally, the French side sought him out for what they considered to be treason. Nevertheless, 800 copies of the film were printed from East Germany, in 17 languages, and distributed worldwide (except in France, where it had to wait for a screening at the occupied Sorbonne in May 68). But not all Algerian independence fighters agreed that their revolution should be filmed by a Frenchman, especially as René Vautier's contact had been liquidated. Caught up in the meanders of revolutionary power struggles, and without being told why, the filmmaker is detained in a prison by decision of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) along with other Algerians, while the film is broadcast by the FLN... Twenty-five months in a prison in Denden, west of Tunis. After the declaration of independence, René Vautier founded the first Algerian Audiovisual Center and directed the first film in independent Algeria: Le peuple en marche. During this shoot, René Vautier was wounded three times. He came under direct fire from the French army, deliberately aimed at his camera. A piece of shrapnel lodged in the Breton filmmaker's (hard) head. He would carry this memory with him all his life, making him probably the only filmmaker with a piece of camera in his head.
