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
وقائع حقيقية لمستشفى بليدة جوانفيل للأمراض النفسية في القرن الماضي، عندما كان الدكتور فرانز فانون رئيسًا للجناح الخامس بين عامي ١٩٥٣ و ١٩٥٦

Fiction, director: Abdenour Zahzah, Algeria/France 2024, 90 min, AR/FR, with EN st. 

> Sunday 27.4.2025 | 21:30
City Kino Wedding | Tickets

Followed by a film talk with Abdenour Zahzah.

Between 1953 and 1956, Frantz Fanon (1925–1965), the French-Caribbean psychiatrist and political philosopher, worked as head doctor at a psychiatric clinic in Blida, Algeria. His time there opened his eyes not only to the atrocities of French colonialism in its treatment of the indigenous population but also to how psychiatric knowledge of the time was shaped by racial prejudice and political hierarchies. Appalled by the conditions of his patients, he sought to introduce reforms, including sport breaks and discussion groups, while also supporting the Algerian resistance in its uprising against an occupation that had lasted over a century.

The film pays tribute to Fanon’s legacy by highlighting an early stage of his life that shaped his antiracist stance, while also underscoring the central role of knowledge formations and psychiatric institutions in backing and channeling colonial power. Based on comprehensive research, it draws from archival explorations and interviews with eyewitnesses. It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024.

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 وقائع حقيقية لمستشفى بليدة جوانفيل للأمراض النفسية في القرن الماضي، عندما كان الدكتور فرانز فانون رئيسًا للجناح الخامس بين عامي ١٩٥٣ و ١٩٥٦
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 وقائع حقيقية لمستشفى بليدة جوانفيل للأمراض النفسية في القرن الماضي، عندما كان الدكتور فرانز فانون رئيسًا للجناح الخامس بين عامي ١٩٥٣ و ١٩٥٦
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 وقائع حقيقية لمستشفى بليدة جوانفيل للأمراض النفسية في القرن الماضي، عندما كان الدكتور فرانز فانون رئيسًا للجناح الخامس بين عامي ١٩٥٣ و ١٩٥٦
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 وقائع حقيقية لمستشفى بليدة جوانفيل للأمراض النفسية في القرن الماضي، عندما كان الدكتور فرانز فانون رئيسًا للجناح الخامس بين عامي ١٩٥٣ و ١٩٥٦