The feature film Faithful Chronicles that Occurred in the Last Century at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital is in competition at the 4th Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival. The festival continues until April 30.
Written and directed by Abdenour Zahzah, the film was screened on April 25 as an Algerian preview at the Azzeddine Medjoubi Regional Theater in Annaba in the presence of a large audience.
The film has a long title: Faithful Chronicles that occurred in the last century at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital, at the time when Doctor Frantz Fanon was head of the fifth division between 1953 and 1956. Shot in black and white, the film focuses on the arrival of Frantz Fanon (Alexandre Dessane) in this hospital, a year before the outbreak of the War of National Liberation in Algeria. The young psychiatrist notes that brutal methods are practiced within the establishment.
First, there is the separation between French and Muslims, an extension of French colonial practices. Sometimes against the advice of his peers, accustomed to old-fashioned psychiatry, he sets out with determination to change the way he deals with patients. He orders not to call patients by nicknames but by their name so as not to contribute “to destroying their identity”.
He then decides to celebrate Christmas and Mawlid Ennabaoui at the hospital. He calls on a nurse artist, the Blidean singer Abderrahmane Aziz who sings Zad ennabi or frahna bih, around candles and tamina within the hospital in the presence of patients. Fanon decides to take the sick out of the hospital with walks on the Chréa mountain with a picnic on the grass.
The idea is to reconnect patients with society. Faced with hesitation and sometimes gentle resistance from nurses and caregivers, he organized training courses to involve them more in practicing his methods, breaking with those of the Algiers School which imposed “colonial psychiatry” , based on racist perceptions developed by Antoine Porot. It was the same Porot who contributed to the opening of the Joinville psychiatric hospital in Blida in the early 1930s.
Anticolonialist activism
Frantz Fanon was a fan of the innovative designs of François Tosquelles. This Franco-Spanish psychiatrist introduced the practice of institutional psychiatry which favors the humanization of care establishments and the densification of the relationship between doctors and patients.
The film, which is not a biopic in the strict sense, follows Frantz Fanon in his relationship with his peers, nurses, patients, the administration and his wife Josie (Chahrazad Kracheni). Josie Fanon had greatly supported her husband in his work and in his anti-colonial activism. The fictional side in the film is linked to the character of Juliette (Amel Kateb), an orphan patient whom Fanon installs in his home to help his wife with housework.
Abdennour Zahzah’s feature film does not dwell much on Frantz Fanon’s commitment to the independence of Algeria. The filmmaker undoubtedly relied on the idea that the support of the author of Black Skins, White Masks for the FLN and the ALN was known. What is less so is his fight against colonial methods within a psychiatric hospital in a country under external domination.
Torture, extrajudicial executions, injustices, police brutality during the French colonial period are evoked in the film through dialogues. A police commissioner, overcome by remorse because of abusive practices, comes to seek the advice of Frantz Fanon.
Abdenour Zahzah chose words over action, the psychiatric treatment itself being based on exchange, discussion, confession. “Little was known about Josie Fanon. There are few images about Frantz Fanon. The first time we see Fanon speak and move is in this film. We know Emir Abdelkader, but we have no images of him. He’s going to have to be in a film.
It should be noted that at the time, the Blida hospital, the largest hospital in Africa, was a stronghold of the FLN. Doctors and nurses had used it to hide weapons and equipment. This hospital has 26 martyrs. The head doctor R. Lacaton was tortured by the French soldiers,” the filmmaker underlined during a press conference, after the screening of the film.
Every film is a miracle
This is a calm feature film that tries to show colonization from the French side. “In our films on the War of Liberation, we highlighted the resistance of the Algerians, but without explaining the reasons for this resistance, we do not show this colonization on the other side. We must understand colonization well to understand the reasons for resistance,” noted Abdenour Zahzah. Abdenour Zahzah, who also produced his film, said the Mojahedin Ministry refused to help finance the film. “On the other hand, I received support from the Ministry of Culture and Health.
It was impossible to film in a hospital without permission from the Ministry of Health and doctors. Doctors Benseddik, Bencharif and Benmansour helped me during filming,” he said. The film was financially supported by Sonatrach, ONDA (National Copyright Office) and the French Institute of Algeria (IFA). “Before this film, I didn’t work for ten years.
It is still complicated to make a film in Algeria. In Algeria, and in Africa in general, each film is a miracle. Everything is handmade. African cinema is haute couture. We get tired to make a film. In our country, decorations are everywhere. From the first click, we have a beautiful photo,” underlined Abdenour Zahzah.
Annaba
From Special Envoy Faycal Métaoui
