The Shadow of Algiers

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The Shadow of Algiers: Intimate Violence

Intimate Violence

BBC Radio 4 - The Shadow of Algiers, Intimate Violence

Stories from France’s troubled history with Algeria and why they still matter today.

A strange story from the Casbah in Algiers...of a murder, a knife and a family secret.

Sixty years after the Algerian War of Independence - and as France prepares to elect a new president - Edward Stourton presents tales from a colonial past which still cast a shadow over the present. 

In the second of five programmes, Edward tells two stories at the heart of the Algerian War.  

First the intriguing story of a knife abandoned in a house in Algiers on a night in March 1957. It was allegedly left behind by French paratroopers after the father of the household was tortured and killed.  The man's son kept it hidden in the family's sideboard until, many years later, it became a vital piece of evidence in a court case. 

And he talks to the 'Milk Bar Bomber', immortalized in the film 'The Battle of Algiers'.  Zorah Drif, was twenty when she walked into a cafe in the Algerian capital with a bomb in a beach bag.  She planted her bomb and left.  The explosion killed three people and injured dozens more.  It made the National Liberation Front or FLN a model for insurgent groups throughout the world.  At 87, she's still unrepentant.    


Sound design: Peregrine Andrews
Producers: Adele Armstrong and Ellie House
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman

REFERENCES 
"The Battle of Algiers" film, 1966. 
Jacques Carbonnel reading from "Papa, qu'as-tu fait en Algérie?" by Raphaëlle Branche.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Factual: History

Stories from France's troubled history with Algeria and why they still matter today.

Edward Stourton presents stories from France's troubled history with Algeria - a colonial past which still casts its shadow over the present.

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