the embodiment of subjectivity in contemporary maghrebi and french cinemas

271 Pages·2015·2.84 MB·English

THE EMBODIMENT OF SUBJECTIVITY IN CONTEMPORARY
MAGHREBI AND FRENCH CINEMAS

A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities

2015

KAYA DAVIES HAYON

SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES
Contents

List of Figures .............................................................................................................. 3

Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 4

Declaration and Copyright Statement .......................................................................... 5

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 6

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7

1. Images of Exile and Embodiment in Tony Gatlif’s Exils, Rabah Ameur-
Zaïmeche’s Bled number one and Mehdi Charef’s La Fille de Keltoum ................... 48

2. Performing Bodies: Representations of Belly Dance and Trance in Raja Amari’s
Satin rouge, Abdellatif Kechiche’s La Graine et le mulet and Tony Gatlif’s Exils .. 93

3. Embodying Islam in Yasmine Kassari’s L’Enfant endormi, Aziz Salmy’s Amours
voilées and Nouri Bouzid’s Millefeuille ................................................................... 143

4. Embodiment, Sexuality and Space in Abdellah Taïa’s L’Armée du salut, Rémi
Lange’s Tarik el hob and Amal Bedjaoui’s Un fils.................................................. 194

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 247

Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 257

Filmography ............................................................................................................. 270

75,424 words
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Zano and Naïma arrive in Algeria in Exils……………………………….56

Figure 2. Kamel sits on the mountainside in Bled number one……………………..69

Figure 3. Louisa in Bled number one……………………………………………….73

Figure 4. Rallia arrives in rural Algeria in La Fille de Keltoum................................79

Figure 5. Rallia (left) and Nedjma (right) in La Fille de Keltoum………………….87

Figure 6. Samia Gamal as Hoda in Sigara wa kas/A Cigarette and a Glass……...103

Figure 7. Lilia’s first dance on stage in Satin rouge.................................................115

Figure 8. Rym’s belly dance in La Graine et le mulet…………………………….127

Figure 9. An extreme-close up of Rym’s belly……………………………………130

Figure 10. The opening shot of L’Enfant endormi………………………………...160

Figure 11. Halima undresses Zeinab during a marriage ritual in L’Enfant
endormi….................................................................................................................163

Figure 12. Batoul and Hamza in the first lovemaking scene of Amours voilées…..174

Figure 13. Batoul and Hamza kiss as the call to prayer sounds in the
background………………………………………………………………………...176

Figure 14. Zaineb’s aunt attempts to veil her in Millefeuille……………………...186

Figure 15. Aïcha (left) and Zaineb (right) walk through the streets of post-
revolutionary Tunisia unveiled……………………………………………………190

Figure 16. Abdellah sneaks into his brother’s bedroom in L’Armée du salut……..208

Figure 17. The hammam sequence in L’Armée du salut…………………………..212

Figure 18. Abdellah walks away from Jean on the beach in L’Armée du salut…...215

Figure 19. Karim dressed as Vénus de Milo in the belly dance sequence in
Morocco…………………………………………………………………………....227

Figure 20. A still from the documentary on male marriages………………………230

Figure 21. The opening sequence of Un fils……………………………………….234

Figure 22. Selim and Louise in the first cross-dressing scene in Un fils…………..236
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Abstract

This thesis examines a cluster of recent films that feature people of Maghrebi
heritage and position corporeality as a site through which subjectivity and self-other
relations are constituted and experienced. These films are set in and between the
countries of the Maghreb, France and, to a lesser degree, Switzerland, and often
adopt a sensual aesthetic that prioritises embodied knowledge, the interrelation of the
senses and the material realities of emotional experience. However, despite the
importance of the body in these films, no study to date has taken corporeality as its
primary point of concern. Existing research in French and Francophone Studies
focuses almost exclusively on the socio-political issues raised by the phenomenon of
French “beur” cinema (films by and/or about young Maghrebi-French people),
meaning that there has been no extended scholarly investigation into the importance
of corporeality in recent films featuring people of Maghrebi heritage. Underpinned
by an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that interweaves corporeal
phenomenology with theological and feminist scholarship on the body from the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA), this thesis seeks to provide the first
longitudinal and comparative account of how Maghrebi people of different genders,
ethnicities, sexualities, ages and classes have been represented corporeally in post-
millennial Maghrebi and French cinemas. Via its acute focus on images of people of
Maghrebi heritage and how their representations show them engaging with their
environments through their bodies, this thesis is the first to apply the recent turn to
corporeal phenomenology in Film Studies and feminism to critical interrogations of
Maghrebi identities in Maghrebi and French films since the new millennium.

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Declaration and Copyright Statement

Declaration

No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an
application for another degree of qualification of this or any other university or other
institute of learning.

Copyright Statement

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this thesis owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”)
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University’s policy on Presentation of Theses.

5
Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisors, Dr
Joseph McGonagle and Dr Darren Waldron, for their expert guidance, for always
being available to provide advice and encouragement, and for believing in my work
when my own conviction wavered. I could not have asked for a more supportive,
inspirational or intelligent supervisory team.

I would also like to thank my independent advisor, Professor Stephen Hutchings,
whose incisive feedback on drafts of sections of this thesis has been invaluable.

I am grateful to the University of Manchester Graduate School for creating a
dynamic research environment, and to the AHRC and the President Doctoral
Scholarship for generously funding this three-year research project.

Thanks to my peers, Ellie, Joe, Maria and Mary, for making the past few years of
study so memorable and enjoyable.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, Annie and Rafi, for their
unwavering love and emotional support; to Sue for her keen and continued interest in
my work; to my friends and my sister, Tali, for always being either a phone call
away or on hand with a glass of wine during stressful periods; and, last but certainly
not least, to my partner, Chris, for his continued love, patience and practical support.

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Introduction

Towards the middle of Tony Gatlif’s road movie, Exils, a young Maghrebi-French
woman and her French pied-noir boyfriend find themselves on a hot and crowded
train on the way to Algiers.1 Unlike her male counterpart, the young woman, Naïma
(Lubna Azabal), seems agitated and sits on the floor, biting her nails anxiously. As
she sits, the use of tight spatial framing combines with the increasingly invasive
sounds of the train to communicate her feelings of claustrophobia and confinement.
After a couple of seconds, the camera cuts to a low-angle medium close-up of a local
veiled woman as a bead of sweat trickles down her forehead and onto Naïma’s
uncovered shoulder. As the bead of sweat hits the heroine’s skin, the diegetic sound
stops and a shot/reverse shot shows the two women looking at one another curiously.
Not only is their intercultural encounter mediated through their bodies, but they are
momentarily connected by the droplet of bodily fluid that passes between the
surfaces of their skin.
The emphasis this sequence places on the body, the senses and the emotions
is reflective of a cluster of recent films that feature Maghrebi and French (and to a
lesser degree Swiss) characters of Maghrebi heritage, and position corporeality as a
site through which subjectivity and self-other relations are constituted and
experienced. These films are set in and between the countries of the Maghreb,
France and, in some cases, Switzerland, and often adopt a sensual aesthetic that
prioritises embodied knowledge, the interrelation of the senses and the material
realities of emotional experience. However, despite the importance of the body in
these films, no study to date has taken corporeality as its primary point of concern. In

1 Exils, dir. by Tony Gatlif (Home Vision Entertainment, 2004). The term pied-noir refers to
Europeans who settled in Algeria during the colonial era, the vast majority of whom later fled
following the end of the Algerian War (1954-62).
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the field of French and Francophone Studies, existing research focuses almost
exclusively on the phenomenon of French “beur” cinema, probing the extent to
which this body of films is able to negotiate a space for Maghrebi-French people in
contemporary French society.2 As a result, there has been less research into questions
of subjectivity and no extended scholarly investigation has examined the importance
of the body for expressing identity in recent films featuring people of Maghrebi
heritage.
To begin to address this gap in the field, this thesis seeks to provide the first
longitudinal and comparative account of how Maghrebi people of different genders,
ethnicities, sexualities, ages and classes have been represented corporeally in post-
millennial Maghrebi and French cinemas. This introduction begins by highlighting
the key role that corporeality plays in articulating identity and the emotions in films
featuring Maghrebi(-French/Swiss) people. It then outlines this study’s conceptual
framework and summarises the reasons why an interdisciplinary approach that
interweaves corporeal phenomenology and film theory with (feminist) scholarship
on the body from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) can elucidate our
understanding of the representations of embodied subjectivity in these films. Via its
acute focus on images of people of Maghrebi heritage and how their representations
show them engaging with their environments through their bodies, this thesis is the
first to apply the recent turn to corporeal phenomenology in Film Studies and
feminism to critical interrogations of Maghrebi identities in Maghrebi and French
films since the new millennium.

2 “Beur” cinema is a term used to refer to a number of documentaries, videos, Super-8 films and full-
length features that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s in France and were by and/or about young
French people of Maghrebi heritage. These films often focused on young, heterosexual Maghrebi-
French men who lived in the urban peripheries of major cities. “Beur” cinema is a contested term and
nebulous category that has been rejected by many as essentialist. For a detailed examination of the
arguments and issues surrounding the label “beur”, see: Will Higbee, Post-Beur Cinema: North
African Émigré and Maghrebi-French Filmmaking in France since 2000 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2013), pp. 9-13.
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Before examining the issue of corporeality as it relates to filmic
representations of Maghrebi(-French/Swiss) subjectivities, it is necessary to provide
some explanation of the terminology adopted throughout this thesis. Following
Sylvie Durmelat and Vinay Swamy, I understand the Maghreb ‘to designate the
former French colonies of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, north of the Atlas
Mountains, and in contrast with the territories to the east, known as the Machrek
(sometimes transliterated from the Arabic as Mashreq or Machreq)’.3 Throughout
this study, I refer to people from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as Maghrebi, but
recognise that this label could be seen to be reductive as it groups people according
to a regional identity that disregards other (ethnic, gendered, sexual, and national)
modes of affiliation.4 I do not wish to homogenise important differences and
understand that people in and from the Maghreb often identify more with national or
ethnic identities (particularly those of Berber heritage). However, I believe that the
term Maghrebi is useful shorthand for referring to people (or films) that originate
from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as it acknowledges their shared history,
geography and culture.5
By contrast, I use the term Maghrebi-French/Swiss to refer to people of
Maghrebi origin who were born and/or raised in France or Switzerland. For Will
Higbee, this appellation is problematic because it implies a clear-cut division
between ‘two distinct national histories, cultural identities and social realities, whose
relationship (due to a shared colonial past) is contested, complex and uneven in

3 Sylvie Durmelat and Vinay Swamy, ‘Introduction’, in Screening Integration: Recasting Maghrebi
Immigration in France, ed. by Sylvie Durmelat and Vinay Swamy (Lincoln: Nebraska University
Press, 2011), pp. 1-24 (pp. 118-19).
4 Will Higbee, ‘Le Cinéma maghrébin vu de l’autre côté de la Méditerranée: cinéma
national/transnational/diasporique’, Africultures, 89 (2012), 102-14 (p. 103).
5 I expand upon the importance of understanding the Maghreb in regional terms on pp. 19-23 of this
introduction.
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terms of cultural, political and economic power’.6 Despite these potential pitfalls,
however, Higbee argues that the term ‘at least attempts to articulate the bi-cultural
identity of French descendants of North African immigrants’ and therefore enables
us to ‘[move] beyond the generational specificity of the term beur’.7 Like Higbee, I
recognise the problems with using an umbrella term like Maghrebi-French, but find
it preferable to previous labels, such as “beur”, which have largely been rejected as
essentialist. Wherever possible, I try to use specific designations that take into
account individuals’ self-definitions and national or ethnic origins. Having outlined
the terminology at use throughout this study, this introduction now outlines the
integral role that the body plays in films featuring people of Maghrebi heritage in
and across the countries of the Maghreb and France.

The Embodiment of Subjectivity in Contemporary Maghrebi and French
Cinemas

The importance of corporeality for understanding Maghrebi cinemas has been
confirmed in an interview with the key veteran Tunisian filmmaker, Nouri Bouzid.
Despite Islamic aniconism, Bouzid argues that the body plays a ‘fundamental’ role in
Maghrebi cinemas as it represents an ‘extraordinary area of expression’ and ‘the
most important vector of dramatic technique and conflicts, dramas, characters’.8
Since around the early 1980s, the body has been a crucial point of focus in much
Maghrebi filmmaking with many key directors emphasising its expressive qualities
and important role in communicating their protagonists’ interior emotions. Whereas
La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua represented the lived and embodied
existences of rural Algerian women, L’Homme des cendres used the suffering and

6 Higbee, Post-Beur Cinema, p. 23.
7 Higbee, Post-Beur Cinema, p. 23.
8 Nouri Bouzid, ‘On Inspiration’, African Experiences of Cinema, ed. by Mbye Cham (London:
British Film Institute, 1996), pp. 48-59 (p. 55).
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