Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The colonial exploitation of Algeria by the French - which led up to the 1954 rebellion in Algeria - is the focus of this sweeping epic, sponsored by the Algerian government. Achmed (Jorge Voyagis) and his family are forced to leave their rural home in search of water. While they are trying to adjust to city life, he is drafted into an Algerian unit fighting in the Second World War. He returns to Algeria after the war only to find that the colonial grip has grown even tighter, and following an edict forbidding public meetings, he joins the growing revolt.
- Actors:
- Yorgo Voyagis, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, Leila Shenna, Cheikh Nourredine, François Maistre, Henri Czarniak, Hassan El Amir, Mohamed Hadj Smaïn, Brahim Hadjadj, Hassan Hassani, Mohammed Kouiret, Sid Ali Kouiret, Abdelhalim Rais, Jacques Richard, Sissani
- Directors:
- Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina
- Producers:
- Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina
- Writers:
- Rachid Boudjedra, Tewfik Fares, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina
- Others:
- Algeria
- Aka:
- Ahdat sanawovach el-djamr / Chronicle of the Burning Years / Chronicle of the Years of Embers
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Countries:
- Algeria
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Chronicle of the Years of Fire
From Embers to Uprising - Chronicle of the Years of Fire review by griggs
At nearly three hours long, this Palme d’Or winner initially gave me pause. But Chronicle fo the Years of Fire earns every minute. Sweeping across decades, it traces the political, social, and spiritual groundwork that made revolution not just likely, but necessary. If The Battle of Algiers is the uprising, filmed through a European lens, this is the pressure cooker that set it boiling, seen from an Algerian perspective—rooted in the soil, the myths, and the memory.
The ambition is vast: from famine-struck villages and tribal rifts to religious complicity and colonial rot, the film sketches a portrait of people worn down—and gradually waking up. The scale is epic, the tone grave, the message clear. When the first acts of rebellion flicker into flame, you feel the weight of what came before.
Director Lakhdar-Hamina's own turn as a wandering madman—barefoot, robed, and ranting—adds a prophetic edge that occasionally veers theatrical, but mostly works. The mix of professional and amateur actors can wobble, but it never undercuts the film's sweep or sincerity.
Not always tidy, often stark, but absolutely essential—especially if you're ready to follow the smoke back to its source.