Description
Book SynopsisThe Algerian War in Film Fifty Years Later, 2004–2012 examines the cultural, political, and aesthetic significance of narrative films made during the fiftieth-anniversary period of the war, between 2004 and 2012. This period was a fruitful one, in which film became a central medium generating varied representations of the war, and Anne Donadey argues that the fiftieth-anniversary film production contributed to France’s move from a period of the return of the repressed to one of difficult anamnesis. Donadey provides a close analysis of twenty narrative films made during this period on both side of the Mediterranean, observing that while some films continue to center on the point of view of only one stake-holding group, a number of films open up new opportunities for multicultural French audiences to envision the war through the eyes of Algerian characters on-screen, and other films bring memories from various groups together in thoughtful synthesis that represent the complexity of the situation. Donadey takes this analysis a step further to analyze what types of gendered representations emerge in these films, given the important participation of Algerian women in the revolutionary war. Scholars of Francophone studies, film, women’s studies, and history will find this book particularly useful.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: The Algeria Syndrome and Hiccups of Memory
Chapter 1: Un/Civil War Memories: L’Ennemi intime, Mon Colonel, Djinns, La Trahison, and Nuit noire 17 octobre 1961
Chapter 2: From Screen Memories to Intertwined Lives: Caché, Michou d’Auber, Le premier homme, Je vous ai compris, and Le Choix de Myriam
Chapter 3: From Nostalg(er)ic to Coalescing Memories: Un Balcon sur la mer, Ce que le jour doit à la nuit, La Baie d’Alger, and Cartouches gauloises
Chapter 4: Militant Memories: Mostefa Ben Boulaïd, Zabana!, Sartre: L’Age des passions, Avant l’oubli, Voyage à Alger, and Pour Djamila
Conclusion: Difficult Anamnesis
Works Cited
About the Author
Index
