France, April 6 -- Soldier, psychiatrist, philosopher... who was Frantz Fanon?A new film by directorJean-Claude Barny seeks to answer that question in a year that marks a century since the birth of one of the most influential figures in 20th-century anti-colonial thought.

Barny, who hails from Guadeloupe, said it wasimportant to understand Fanon's Caribbean culture, his Western culture, his African culture, but also to view him as a man "capable of absorbing all cultures" - and of detaching himself from them too.

"I started reading everything I could get my hands on and looking at everything I could about Fanon. I had a kind of [binge] of curiosity, of information, of pedagogy, to be able to understand what I was going to do with it and...