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Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, first Arab and African director to win Cannes Palme d’Or, dies aged 95
Chronicle of the Years of Fire took the prize in 1975 for its portrayal of the Algerian war of independence, drawing on his own traumatic history
Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, the first Arab and African director to win the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, has died aged 91, his family said Friday. Photograph: Photo 12/AlamyThe struggle for Algeria’s independence was at the heart of Chronicle of the Years of Fire, which in six chapters from 1939 to 1954 tells the story of a nation through its people, culminating in the uprising against French colonisation. He attended agricultural school, then studied in the southern French town of Antibes, just along the Mediterranean coast from Cannes, where he met his future wife.
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