Ronin

Christopher Nolan screened The Battle of Algiers for his crew as an operational blueprint for how to shoot urban warfare, the verité approach, the documentary realism, the sense that what we're watching is happening in real time. Bane's takeover of Gotham mirrors Pontecorvo's depiction of insurgency: tactical, patient, willing to endure casualties. In a 2012 DGA interview, Nolan was explicit: Pontecorvo showed him how to make terrorism feel inevitable rather than sensationalized. The Battle of Algiers is available on MUBI.