Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (Algeria)

Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Arabic cinema. Born in February 1934 in M’Sila, Algeria, he began his studies in his native country. He first became interested in the world of cinema at the Lycée Carnot in Cannes, France. After beginning studies of agriculture and law at French universities, he deserted the French army in 1958 and joined the anti-French Algerian resistance in Tunisia, where he worked for the provisional Algerian government in exile.

His film career began as he joined the Algerian Maquis (guerrillas). In 1959, the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) sent him to Prague, where he pursued his cinematography studies at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. However, he quit his studies in order to work for the Barrandov Studios.

In 1960 he joined the Service Cinéma, created by the Algerian government in exile. In 1959, the Algerian ministry of information in exile commissioned Lakhdar-Hamina, together with Djamel Chanderli and Pierre Chaulet, to produce a movie about Algeria’s predicament under French colonialism. The documentary film, titled Djazzaïrouna (Our Algeria), aimed at portraying the goals pursued by the Algerian nationalist guerrilla movement, the Maquis.

Upon Algerian independence in 1962, he returned to his homeland where, together with his colleagues from Tunisian exile, he founded the Office des Actualités Algériennes, of which he was director from 1963 until its dissolution in 1974. From 1981 until 1984 he acted as director of the Office National pour le Commerce et l’Industrie Cinématographique.

The Last Image, was part of the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival in 1986 and was nominated for the Golden Palm.
Chronicle of the Years of Embers (1974), however, is Lakhdar-Hamina's most notable work. In 1975, he achieved worldwide recognition when the movie was awarded the Golden Palm at Cannes.