Gillo Pontecorvo: Partisan Film-maker

One of the great truisms of humanity is that we

are strongly influenced by our ‘formative years’.

In the case of Gillo Pontecorvo, the years between

19 and 26 were to leave an indelible mark on him.

At the end of his teens he moved to Paris as a

refugee from a Jewish background; by the age of

26 he was a central leader in a mass resistance

movement that overthrew Italian fascism.

But for cinema he has left his mark by replaying

these events out in various settings. From

his early documentaries in the 1950s, to his

last full-length feature, Ogro (1980), Pontecorvo

debated both themes of power in its purest

sense, and oppressive power in a malignant

sense. More strikingly and more successfully,

he also grappled with how people should organize

against oppressive power – this can be seen

most famously in The Battle of Algiers (1966), but

resonates strongly through Queimada/Burn! (1969)

and his first medium-length feature, Giovanna

(1955). Apart from describing Pontecorvo’s formative

years, this article will concentrate on

his first and last major works – Giovanna and

Ogro, trying to show the beginning and end of

his cinematic engagement with the themes that

dominated his emergence into adulthood.