âLa Zerda and the songs of oblivionâ (1982) is one of only two films made by the Algerian novelist Assia Djebar, with âLa Nouba des femmes du mont Chenouaâ (1977). Powerful poetic essay based on archives, in which Assia Djebar â in collaboration with the poet Malek Alloula and the composer Ahmed Essyad â deconstructs the French colonial propaganda of the PathĂŠ-Gaumont newsreels from 1912 to 1942, to reveal the signs of revolt among the subjugated North African population. Through the reassembly of these propaganda images, Djebar recovers the history of the Zerda ceremonies, suggesting that the power and mysticism of this tradition were obliterated and erased by the predatory voyeurism of the colonial gaze. This very gaze is thus subverted and a hidden tradition of resistance and struggle is revealed, against any exoticizing and orientalist temptation.
