السينما العربية الناطقة بالفرنسية: حالة مهدي شرف / Arab Francophone Cinema: The Case of Mehdi Charef

Mahmoud Qassim

Program

ALIF

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http://www.jstor.org/stable/521959

All Authors

قاسم, محمود; Qassim, Mahmoud

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics

Publication Date

2000

doi

https://www.doi.org/10.2307/521959

Abstract

[In Arabic Francophone literature, the writer is capable of publishing in his/her native country or in France. In general, this literature tackles Arab issues but is written in French. In cinema, however, the case is different. According to the rules of cinema, the film is identified by the producing country. Therefore, films that are directed by Arabs and produced in France are French Films. This is especially true of films directed by Algerian, Tunisian and Morrocan immigrants. The most important characteristic in this type of cinema is the country to which the creator immigrated to. Most of the stories in these films are about the new country in which the director has lived. This representation of the new setting has appeared in several films. Rarely do these films have stories connected to the directors' native countries. This article, focuses on the case of Mehdi Charef as an author, screenplay writer, and film director. His first film Thé au harem d'archimède (1985) is an adaptation of his novel Thé au harem d'Archi Ahmed (1983) which revolves around the life of Algerian migrants living in poor neighborhoods in Paris. The following film he directed, Miss Mona (1987), deals with gender issues and prostitution, in which one of the protagonists is an Arab, but his ethnicity is incidental in the development of the plot. The third film Charef directed, Au pays des Juliets (1991), is entirely related to French life and concerns. But as Mehdi Charef moved away from depicting the life of his community, interest in him has waned.]

First Page

117

Last Page

132

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