The People's National Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) hosted a preview screening of the documentary film “Sheikh Larbi Tebessi, Shaheed Without a Grave” (1891-1957) by Director Mohamed Ouali, on the occasion of the National Day of Remembrance, coinciding with the 79th anniversary of the May 8, 1945 Massacres.
The documentary screening took place at Rabah Bitat conference at the assembly headquarters in Algiers, in the presence of Speaker, Brahim Boughali, the Minister of Culture and Arts, Soraya Mouloudji, mujahideen and intellectuals, to commemorate the National Memory Day.
Lasting 50 minutes, the documentary recounts the intellectual and political career of the Shaheed Sheikh Larbi Tebessi through the testimonies of mujahedeen (war veterans), the shaheed's family, as well as jurists and history researchers who consider Larbi Tebessi to be an outstanding scholar and revolutionary man who symbolized the history of a fighting people and who had a global reformist way of thinking.
Born in the commune of Kentiss (Tebessa), Sheikh Larbi Tebessi belonged to a family renowned for its dignity and rectitude. He was raised in a Bedouin family environment, his father originally being a farmer and teacher of the Holy Quran. His first school was his father's, and he went on to study at the Zeitouna University in Tunisia, then Al-Azhar in Egypt, according to the documentary.
The documentary includes reconstructed scenes that evoke certain stages in the life of this Algerian scholar, as well as interventions that support the historical truth about him, using archive footage from Algerian television. In this way, the director highlights how his complex personality was forged, bathed in knowledge, imbued with the love of country and committed to the freedom of the Algerian people.
Produced with the support of the Ministry of Mujahideen and Rights’ Holders, the film presents a wealth of information on the man's culture and his forward-looking vision of Algerian society. When he founded a training school for boys and girls and dedicated a department to girls' education in Tebessa, with a capacity of more than 100 girls, he proved himself to be a man of reform with the ability to guide and convince, becoming a voice calling for struggle and joining the ranks of the National Liberation Front.
Through the story of the shaheed’s life, the documentary also recounts the exactions of the French occupation against Algerians. It highlights the importance of recording the inhuman crimes that France is still trying to erase by concealing colonial archives, particularly the file on the disappeared, including Shaheed Larbi Tbessi, who was kidnapped on April 4, 1957, and whose body has never been found.”
