True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956

Abdenour Zahzah / Algeria & France / 2024 / 91 min

Despite only living to the age of 36, Frantz Fanon stands as perhaps the most important postcolonial thinker of all time. This thorough, cinematic docufiction reconstructs his therapeutic methods in the period 1953 to 1956, when the young psychiatrist, philosopher and political activist from Martinique was the head doctor at a psychiatric clinic in colonised Algeria. The institution is steeped in racist colonialism. French and Muslims live separately, and conditions for the latter are shocking. But Fanon takes the initiative to open a café, organise football matches and allow patients to wear their own clothes. Meanwhile, the war of independence spreads in the background and the Algerian resistance movement gains ground. Based on extensive research, Fanon’s clinical notes and conversations with staff at the time, director Abdenour Zahzah has created a beautiful black-and-white film that uses fiction to further develop post-colonial anti-racism in a time when Fanon’s ideas have been revitalised.