Martinique-born psychiatrist Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, a 1961 nonfiction classic study of decolonization that has served as an inspiration to revolutionary movements throughout the world over the last half-century, is the focal point for Göran Olsson's documentary. Fanon, who died at the age of 36 in the same week that his book was published (and promptly banned and confiscated by the French government), was primarily active in the resistance movement in Algeria, but his general dissection of the brutal effects of colonialism on subject peoples coupled with his call for the use of all means necessary to end colonial rule wherever it persisted wound up having wider implications. Olsson presents excerpts from The Wretched of the Earth (read by singer Lauryn Hill, with especially provocative phrases superimposed in print on the screen), which accompany news footage from Swedish television archives about labor protests and attacks on government positions in various African locales, including Angola, Mozambique, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso. The technique is mostly successful here, although the relative lack of historical context can be disorienting, and a few peculiar digressions—such as a long section on a missionary couple—may seem strange. Some will certainly be disturbed by the implication that decolonization must inevitably involve violence against oppressors, but this is a challenging, thought-provoking film that should spur discussion. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Concerning Violence
(2014) 89 min. DVD: $149 ($349 w/PPR). DRA. Kino Lorber Edu. Volume 30, Issue 1
Concerning Violence
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