Contemporary Algerian Filmmaking

246 Pages·2015·1.02 MB·English

by  Cheira Belguellaoui

Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2007
Contemporary Algerian Filmmaking:
from "Cinéma National" to "Cinéma De
L'Urgence" (Mohamed Chouikh, Merzak
Allouache, Yamina Bachir-Chouikh, Nadir
Moknèche)
Cheira Belguellaoui
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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

CONTEMPORARY ALGERIAN FILMMAKING: FROM “CINÉMA
NATIONAL” TO “CINÉMA DE L’URGENCE” (MOHAMED CHOUIKH,
MERZAK ALLOUACHE, YAMINA BACHIR-CHOUIKH, NADIR
MOKNÈCHE)

By

CHEIRA BELGUELLAOUI

A Dissertation submitted to the
Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Awarded:
Fall semester, 2007

Copyright © 2007
Cheira Belguellaoui
All Rights Reserved
The members of the Committee approve the Dissertation of Cheira Belguellaoui defended
on July 27, 2007.

Alec G. Hargreaves
Professor Directing Dissertation

Mark G. Cooper
Outside Committee Member

William J. Cloonan
Committee Member

Reinier Leushuis
Committee Member

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee
members.
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To the memory of my grandmother.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Dr. Alec G. Hargreaves for his ongoing support, limitless patience, valuable
feedback and meticulous insights. I am likewise grateful to Dr. William J. Cloonan whose
friendship and mentoring enabled me to push and look forward, and Dr. Mark Cooper whose
invaluable expertise has made this research particularly rich. Finally, Dr. Reinier Leushuis whose
motivation, practical advice and availability never failed.

Most importantly, I am indebted to the Winthrop-King Institute whose scholarships and travel
grants made the pursuit of this study possible.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ......................................................................................................... Page viii

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... Page 1

October 1988 and Algerian filmmaking today: a brief overview............... Page 2
Dissertation structure....................................................................................... Page 6

1. LITERATURE REVIEW, THEORY AND METHODOLOGY...................... Page 9

National cinema............................................................................................... Page 13
Third Cinema, Third World Cinema and Third Worldist Cinema.................. Page 35
Transnational, diasporic, exilic and “accented” cinemas................................ Page 47
A transnational cinema.............................................................................. Page 50
Exilic, diasporic and postcolonial filmmakers.......................................... Page 55
Conclusion ................................................................................................... Page 58

2. THIRD CINEMA AND THE REVIVAL OF POETIC REALISM IN
MOHAMED CHOUIKH’S THE ARK OF THE DESERT................................. Page 60

About the filmmaker....................................................................................... Page 63
The making of The Ark of the Desert.............................................................. Page 70
Synopsis ................................................................................................... Page 71
A cinema of parables....................................................................................... Page 73
Themes ................................................................................................... Page 76
Themes of the nation and what makes the “national”............................... Page 76
Themes of the nation’s crisis..................................................................... Page 81
Cinematic style and poetic realism.................................................................. Page 82
Questions of distribution, exhibition, audience and transnationalism............. Page 87
Conclusion ................................................................................................... Page 94

3. BAB EL-OUED CITY OR THE MAKING OF A “COUSCOUS-WESTERN
ISLAMIQUE” IN POSTCOLONIAL ALGERIA............................................ Page 96
About the filmmaker....................................................................................... Page 100
The making of Bab el-Oued City.................................................................... Page 113
Synopsis ................................................................................................... Page 117
Themes ................................................................................................... Page 120
A micro-society on a slippery verge: fundamentalism and young
Algerians.................................................................................................. Page 123
Cinematic style of Bab el-Oued City, where the rooftop is the limit.............. Page 131
Questions of distribution, production and critical reception........................... Page 134
Critical reception....................................................................................... Page 134
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To Talk or not to talk: Allouache’s ambiguous position as a
transnational filmmaker ................................................................... Page 137
Constraints and compromises................................................................... Page 138
Conclusion ................................................................................................... Page 144

4. UNMASKING AND SCREENING TERROR IN RACHIDA BY YAMINA
BACHIR-CHOUIKH ..................................................................................... Page 146

Algerian women in Algeria: an overview....................................................... Page 148
Hassi Messaoud............................................................................................... Page 152
Of spaces and borders............................................................................... Page 153
Women’s filmmakers: (re-) telling the untold................................................. Page 154
Rachida: the film............................................................................................. Page 160
The making of Rachida............................................................................. Page 160
Distribution and critical reception............................................................. Page 161
Audiences ................................................................................................... Page 164
Synopsis ................................................................................................... Page 167
Themes and cinematic style............................................................................ Page 169
The screening of terrorism........................................................................ Page 169
Women as “Others”.................................................................................. Page 173
A selected scene: “A family disgraced”.................................................... Page 175
Symbolism: the female body, the nation and the veil............................... Page 176
Further reflections on Third Cinema as a counter-cinema........................ Page 179
Conclusion ................................................................................................... Page 181

5. TODAY’S ALGERIA IN NADIR MOKNÈCHE’S VIVA LALDJÉRIE ..... Page 184

About the filmmaker....................................................................................... Page 186
The making of Viva Laldjérie ........................................................................ Page 188
Synopsis ................................................................................................... Page 190
Themes ................................................................................................... Page 191
“cinéma de femmes”................................................................................. Page 191
On the use of French................................................................................. Page 195
Algeria cultural hybridity.......................................................................... Page 198
Fanonian motifs......................................................................................... Page 198
Critical reception and the question of audiences............................................. Page 200
Situating Moknèche ................................................................................. Page 203
Up close and personal: audiences.................................................................... Page 204
Further reflections on the reception of Algerian-directed filmmaking..... Page 209
Conclusion ................................................................................................... Page 213

CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... Page 214

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BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... Page 220

Filmography: feature films by Algerian filmmakers, 1988-2003................... Page 220
Books and journal articles............................................................................... Page 221
Press articles and interviews............................................................................ Page 225
Online sources................................................................................................. Page 235

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................... Page 237

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ABSTRACT

This dissertation considers the position of contemporary Algerian filmmaking (1988-2003)
against the much-debated concept of national cinema. Drawing upon a range of theoretical
frameworks and concepts such as Third Cinema, transnational cinema, and “accented” cinema, this
dissertation asks—among key questions—whether Algerian-directed films still articulate a national
coherence. In other words, do they still speak the nation? If so, how might we, based on their
modus operandi, thematic and other constituents define this particular cinema?
As part of a larger discussion and through the works of four distinctive Algerian-born
filmmakers, each chapter takes into account questions of production, distribution, exhibition,
influences, textuality, critical reception and audience (whenever feasible), and addresses each
director’s specificities as well as their relationship and engagement to Algeria. In doing so, this
study accounts for the complexities of a body of films whose ties to the nation-state remain both
significant and historically relevant for they probe specific and contemporary questions
surrounding gender, sexuality, and politics, but most importantly the rise and impact of Islamic
fundamentalism.
Although it is often difficult if not impossible for Algerian filmmakers to openly address
Algeria’s political instability, the efforts which they have made in this regard, have resulted in
multiple representations of a young society with an uncertain sense of identity and direction.
Specific film texts are thus examined as constitutive of multiple counter-discourses of the nation
and the dissertation argues that they are best categorized under the rubric of “cinéma de l’urgence;”
[crisis cinema] a deterritorialized cinema, devoid of a national industry, and which addresses
Algeria’s immediate political, social and cultural reality via a multiplicity of marginal voices as
well as languages. Through its analysis of such texts, the dissertation aims to bring attention to a
corpus of understudied works and to highlight their national specificity.

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INTRODUCTION

Born in the maquis and initially used as a “combat weapon” and a form of
“testimony”1 during the war of Liberation (1954-1962), early Algerian cinema and many of
the key structures that helped shaped post-independence filmmaking were set up to serve the
newly implemented nation-state building measures. Used simultaneously as propagandistic
tool in the service of the construction of the nation-state and its associated identity, Algerian
cinema aimed to circumscribe the Algerian nation whose strength was to be found in its
“unified” people, and the efforts of the latter in adhering and embracing the then state
agenda. Algerian cinema up to the late 1980s, functioned thus as a state-monitored
discursive space, delineated by state directives and preoccupied with celebrating and
promoting the birth of a nation. Understood thus, Algerian cinema was synonymous with
national or state cinema and was institutionalized as early as 1964. Today however, and as
will be explained as some length throughout this study, Algerian-directed features are best
conceptualized by the term “cinéma de l’urgence,” [crisis cinema]. The narratives that these
recent films offer bespeak an acknowledgement of the bloody events of the 1990s and of the
importance of the image that is commensurate with the need of Algerians to be visually
present on the global scene.
In Naissance du cinéma algérien (1971),2 Boudjedra distinguishes three overall
phases that make up the evolution of Algerian cinema. Each phase corresponds in part to
distinct thematic concerns. The early days (up to the early 1970s) covered themes of the war
of Liberation in an attempt to rewrite history from a non-Western perspective while at the
same time establishing the parameters of an Algerian national and cultural identity. In
addition to celebrating the heroism of the people, early Algerian cinema championed many of

1 Benjamin Stora, Algeria 1830-2000: A Short History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001) 175.
2 Although no longer available in print, both Stora (2001) and Armes (2005) have used Boudjedra’s study in
their respective works.
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