Oldest Cannes Palme d'Or Winner, Hamina, Passes Away at 95

ALGIERS: The family of Mohammed Lakhdar Hamina announced yesterday that he had passed away at the age of 95. He was the first filmmaker from both the Arab world and Africa to claim the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The filmmaker was awarded the prize in 1975 for “Chronicle of the Years of Fire”, a historical drama about the Algerian war of independence.

His offspring mentioned that he died at his residence in Algiers.

Hamina – who held the title for longest-living Palme d'Or recipient – participated in the film festival at Cannes on the French Riviera four times.

His 1967 movie "The Winds of the Aures" received the accolade for Best Debut Film.

At the core of his best-known piece lay the fight for Algeria’s freedom. This work, spanning six chapters from 1939 to 1954, narrates the journey of a country as seen through its inhabitants, leading up to their revolt against French colonial rule.

Hamina, born on February 26, 1934, in M’Sila within the rugged Aures area of northeastern Algeria, came from humble origins as the offspring of peasant parents hailing from the elevated plateaus.

He went to an agricultural school before heading south to study in the French town of Antibes, near the Mediterranean coastline not far from Cannes, where he crossed paths with his future spouse.

The couple had four sons together.

In the Algerian war, his father was abducted, tormented, and murdered by the French military.

In 1958, he was summoned and became part of the Algerian resistance movement in Tunis.

He learned filmmaking on the job, through an internship with Tunisian newsreels before venturing into short films.