Saâdi Yacef (1928-2021) was an Algerian revolutionary, actor and politician who, as FLN military commander in Algiers, led urban guerrilla operations against French colonial rule in 1956-1957. Captured and sentenced to death in 1957 - a sentence later commuted - he went on after independence to produce and act in The Battle of Algiers (1966), the landmark film based on his own memoir that won the Golden Lion at Venice and received three Oscar nominations.
Saadi Yacef died on September 10, 2021 in Algeria at the age of 93; the Algerian Senate called him "one of the lights of the Algerian Revolution".
The film The Battle of Algiers ranked 45th in the prestigious Sight & Sound list of the greatest films of all time according to critics and 22nd according to directors.
The American cinema at the University of Wisconsin included The Battle of Algiers in its program as part of a series on the origins of Algerian national cinema.
