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In terms of the so-called 'clash of civilisations' after '9/11', Islamic states such as Algeria have too often been perceived in the West as 'other' and hence as threatening. This book, via an analysis of cinema, provides a discussion on some misunderstandings and assumptions about Algeria, which remains to a large extent underrepresented or misrepresented in the UK media. It is about Algerian national cinema and illuminates the ways in which the official mythologising of a national culture at the 'centre' of the postcolonial state has marginalised the diverse identities within the nation.
Case studies: Omar Gatlato (Merzak Allouache, 1976), La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (Assia Djebar, 1978), La Citadelle (Mohamed Chouikh, 1988) Gender is one of the most vexed questions in modern Algeria and has been approached in diverse films of different genres
reforms could be put in place. The ‘resuscitated gaze’ of a missing father on the struggles of his family or his orphaned children is also evoked in those films haunted by dead or absent fathers: Omar Gatlato, La Citadelle, Délice Paloma, Viva Laldjérie . But crucial to the diversity of Algerian film-making in the last decade or so is the testimony of the female gaze, notably in both fictional and documentary representations
Case studies: La Colline oubliée (Abderrahmane Bouguermouh, 1996), Machaho (Belkacem Hadjadj, 1996), La Montagne de Baya (Azzedine Meddour, 1997) As exemplified by La Citadelle (Chouikh, 1988) from the last chapter, and as reinforced even by the family dynamics of
(Chouikh, 1997) Confronting the issue of the civil war, Mohamed Chouikh does not vary from the allegorical approach that we can also observe in his treatment of gender and the Family Code in La Citadelle (1988, see Chapter 4 ) or of memory and history in Youcef (1993, see Chapter 6 ). Again in L’Arche du désert Chouikh engages with the state of the nation by employing a form
before the watershed of October 1988 saw an increase in films on division, fragmentation and the discontents of the nation-state, heralded by Mohamed Chouikh’s La Citadelle (1988, see Chapter 4 ). In the cinema of remembrance or second-phase cinema, territory is literally and figuratively reclaimed from colonial occupation. The representation of Algerian landscapes as inhabited, fought for, possessed by
(see Chapter 4 for a powerful critique of the code in the film La Citadelle ). The code remains in place, having been amended but not abrogated by President Bouteflika in February 2005 (see Khanna 2008 : xiii). The 1980s saw a repositioning of Algeria away from socialism (even of a ‘specific’ kind) after Boumediene’s death, and is generally viewed as a period of increasing corruption and the alienation of the youth
– with none of the gender tensions that surface in, say, Mohamed Chouikh’s La Citadelle (1988) – is in the opening credit sequence. In a continuous take, with gently gliding camera, he films the mother as she leaves the house and walks downhill to the stream to wash and collect water (an element symbolically linked to femininity in Berber culture). A sense of belonging, routine and security is evoked by the smooth camerawork