Re-viewing The Battle of Algiers with Germaine Tillion

There is an important scene missing from the film, The Battle of Algiers. In July and August 1957, Yacef Saâdi, the nationalist leader in Algiers and a motivating force behind Gillo Pontecorvo's film, met secretly with the French ethnologist and Resistance heroine Germaine Tillion. This essay explores the relation established between the Gaullist Tillion and Yacef. They recognized the resister in one another and during the Battle of Algiers sought to create the conditions for a new relationship between Algeria and France. The essay concludes by looking at the ways this event is interpreted in different memory traditions in contemporary Algeria, and what resonance it has for the Euro-American left today.