A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #361 - Culture - See: Jean-Claude Barny, “Fanon” (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Jean-Claude Barny's Fanon was released in early April 2025. An important 
film, a work worth seeing, but one that fails to avoid a number of 
sometimes embarrassing pitfalls. ---- In Fanon , we follow the author's 
life during his years as a psychiatrist at the Blida hospital in 
Algeria, then still French, as well as his commitment as an 
anti-imperialist activist alongside the Algerian national movement. This 
bias is probably what gives the film its greatest strength: it offers 
the general public a strong image of the reality of the colonial system 
in a French context. Having succeeded in attracting (at the time of 
writing) almost 200,000 spectators, it shows us the violence of colonial 
oppression. The domination of the French – always sure of themselves and 
their civilizing mission – over the natives is revealed head-on in 
polished frames. The inhumanity of the doctors in suits who consider the 
Algerians as beasts, like that of the colonists who think they can do 
anything on their small plot of land, is striking. While the colonial 
situation is not unfamiliar to film lovers, such a presentation of 
France, in what it then considered a department, such a depiction of 
true apartheid, is relatively new. And in this respect, one can assume 
that this work will be a landmark.

However, the film's main character, the one whose footsteps we follow 
for two hours, isn't Algeria. It's Frantz Fanon. A relatively unknown 
intellectual outside of activist circles, but one of the major thinkers 
of anti-racist and anti-imperialist theory. This is the other great 
strength of this work: it allows us to get to know a figure who should 
enjoy more celebrity. We sense that the film's crew adores Fanon. So 
much so that it can become disconcerting. The character, and his actor, 
are often aestheticized to the point of giving the whole thing a feeling 
of hagiography.

Furthermore, beyond this important narrative, the film doesn't address 
all the points it addresses. We will be surprised to see FLN posters 
from a few years before its creation. The entire history of the Algerian 
national movement is generally glossed over, relayed as a backdrop to 
Fanon's life. Yet, this was a great opportunity to tell part of this story.

But the most disturbing aspect is the treatment of psychiatry. Fanon is 
portrayed as a doctor; this will be his role, his worldview, and the 
perspective of the film. His communist commitment is barely mentioned, 
if at all. And colonization is taken from an overly pathological angle. 
Even the dangerous French executioner, a cruel soldier, is portrayed as 
a pure victim of a system that crushes both colonists and colonized , 
and is treated by the courageous doctor who offers him redemption. The 
film places too little emphasis on the concrete interests that some 
colonists may have had in colonization and, as a result, sometimes 
borders on a depoliticizing fresco.

Wendelin Thomas (UCL Alsace)

Jean-Claude Barny, Fanon, 2025, 133 minutes.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Voir-Jean-Claude-Barny-Fanon
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