Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels

In the late 1950s, when Algerians were revolting against French occupation, they had a secret weapon: propaganda. Yugoslavia’s leader Tito sent his favourite cameraman Stevan Labudović to embed with Algeria’s National Liberation Army (ALN) and make newsreels to spread their cause around the world. Labudović had grown up under Nazi occupation and was passionate about helping people win their freedom. He was fearless about putting himself in combat situations. From 1959 to 1962, he documented the revolution in dozens of reels of 35mm footage and hundreds of photographs. Over 50 years later, his legacy was largely forgotten until it attracted the curiosity of Mila Turajlić, known for her essayistic films on history.