ReFocus: The Films of Rachid Bouchareb 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd i 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM ReFocus: The International Directors Series Series Editors: Robert Singer, Stefanie Van de Peer, and Gary D. Rhodes Board of Advisors: Lizelle Bisschoff (University of Glasgow) Stephanie Hemelryck Donald (University of Lincoln) Anna Misiak (Falmouth University) Des O’Rawe (Queen’s University Belfast) ReFocus is a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of international film directors, from the celebrated to the ignored, in direct relationship to their respective culture—its myths, values, and historical precepts—and the broader parameters of international film history and theory. The series provides a forum for introducing a broad spectrum of directors, working in and establishing movements, trends, cycles, and genres including those historical, currently popular, or emergent, and in need of critical assessment or reassessment. It ignores no director who created a historical space—either in or outside of the studio system—beginning with the origins of cinema and up to the present. ReFocus brings these film directors to a new audience of scholars and general readers of Film Studies. Titles in the series include: ReFocus: The Films of Susanne Bier Edited by Missy Molloy, Mimi Nielsen, and Meryl Shriver-Rice ReFocus: The Films of Francis Veber Keith Corson ReFocus: The Films of Jia Zhangke Maureen Turim and Ying Xiao ReFocus: The Films of Xavier Dolan Edited by Andrée Lafontaine ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa: Producing and Consuming Contemporary Art Cinema Nuno Barradas Jorge ReFocus: The Films of Sohrab Shahid Saless: Exile, Displacement and the Stateless Moving Image Edited by Azadeh Fatehrad ReFocus: The Films of Pablo Larraín Edited by Laura Hatry ReFocus: The Films of Michel Gondry Edited by Marcelline Block and Jennifer Kirby ReFocus: The Films of Rachid Bouchareb Edited by Michael Gott and Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp ReFocus: The Films of Teuvo Tulio Henry Bacon, Kimmo Laine, and Jaakko Seppälä edinb urghuniversitypress.com/series/refocint 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd iiii 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM ReFocus: The Films of Rachid Bouchareb Edited by Michael Gott and Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd iiiiii 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organization Michael Gott and Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp, 2020 © the chapters their several authors, 2020 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun—Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/13 Ehrhardt MT by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 6651 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 6653 0 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 6654 7 (epub) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd iivv 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM Contents Figures vii Note on Translations viii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Rachid Bouchareb—A Global French Filmmaker 1 Michael Gott and Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp Part I A Multidimensional Oeuvre 1 Rachid Bouchareb’s Cinema as a “Vehicle for Encounters”: Cultural Mixings and the Pre-production Process 25 Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp 2 The Road from Baton Rouge: Mapping Rachid Bouchareb’s Transnational Mobile Movies 40 Michael Gott 3 Questions of Gender and Embodiment in the Intimiste Films of Rachid Bouchareb 64 Kaya Davies Hayon 4 Genre and Universalism in the Films of Rachid Bouchareb 82 David Pettersen 5 The American Dimensions of Rachid Bouchareb’s Cinema 99 Nabil Boudraa and Ahmed Bedjaoui 6 We Could Be Heroes: “Arabs” Becoming Brave in Rachid Bouchareb’s Cinema 117 Julien Gaertner 7 Globalization, Cinema, and Terrorism in Rachid Bouchareb’s Films: London River, Baton Rouge, and Little Senegal 131 Mireille Rosello 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd v 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM vi CONTENTS Part II Case Studies 8 Aesthetics of Confinement: Space, Memento Mori, and the Recording of History in Rachid Bouchareb’s Poussières de vie/Dust of Life 151 Michael O’Riley 9 The Door of No Return: A Cinema of (Up)rooting and Decentering in Rachid Bouchareb’s Little Senegal 166 Gemma King 10 Rachid Bouchareb’s Hors la loi/Outside the Law: A Lesson in History, Reception, and Artistic License 181 Jennifer Howell 11 Postcolonial Feminism, Gender, and Genre in Rachid Bouchareb’s Just like a Woman 197 Anne Donadey 12 Relations of Disjuncture in a “World-in-motion”: Rachid Bouchareb’s La Voie de l’ennemi/Two Men in Town 215 Valérie K. Orlando Appendix: Filmography of Rachid Bouchareb 235 Index 238 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd vvii 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM Figures 2.1 The French travelers enjoy a moment of solidarity and song on the road aboard a touring gospel choir’s bus 47 2.2 The dreary roadside on the outskirts of Baton Rouge 48 2.3 Soldiers inspect Elisabeth’s passport at the closed border between Turkey and Syria in Road to Istanbul 56 2.4 A large world map looms in the background at the moment when the trio from Baton Rouge finds a way to get to the United States 59 3.1 A close-up of Malika’s tearful face as Merwan cuts her hair in Cheb 68 3.2 Nora at Karole’s bedside in My Family’s Honor 73 3.3 Marilyn and Mona belly dance on stage together for the first time in Just Like a Woman 76 5.1 Forest Whitaker and Dolores Heredia in Two Men in Town 104 5.2 The three brothers in Outside the Law 108 5.3 Golshifteh Farahani and Sienna Miller in Just Like a Woman 113 7.1 Ousmane and Elisabeth on a public bench in a park in London 138 7.2 Ousmane praying under olive trees in the south of France 141 8.1 Son records the history of the internment camps 161 9.1 Alloune at antebellum cemetery, South Carolina 174 9.2 Modern cemetery containing Robinson family grave, New York 174 9.3 Alloune at Hassan’s grave by the sea, Gorée 175 12.1 Two Men in Town, Garnett facing the desert 225 12.2 Two Men in Town, Garnett and Agati in the town diner 227 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd vviiii 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM Note on Translations Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from French to English were done by the author(s) of the individual chapters. For reasons of space, we have opted to include only the English translations. In a few instances, however, when the original French citation is not easily accessible (for example, quotes from television or radio interviews that are not available online or those from the film Cheb, which is not available on DVD), we have included the French in the notes. 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd vviiiiii 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM Notes on Contributors Ahmed Bedjaoui graduated from the Paris Institute of Cinematographic Studies. He also holds a PhD in American Studies (on Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood). He is currently Professor of Audiovisual Communication and Cinema Studies at Algiers University 3. He also serves as the Artistic Manager of the Algiers International Film Festival. His publications include the follow- ing books: Images et visages (2012), Cinéma et guerre de libération, des batailles d’images (2014), Littérature et cinémas arabes (2016), La Guerre d’Algérie dans le cinéma mondial (2016), and Le Cinéma à son âge d’or (2018), all published by Chihab Algiers. The Role of Images During the Algerian War for Independence is forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan. He has also published two articles for NHK Review. He has been curator for many film weeks and exhibitions, among them The Saga of the Algerian Cinematheque and The Algerian Films on Posters (2018). In 2015, Ahmed Bedjaoui received the UNESCO Federico Fellini Medal for his contribution to the world of film culture. He was appointed as the feature films Jury President of the FESPACO (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2019). Nabil Boudraa is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Oregon State University. Nabil has received several grants and awards, including a Fulbright Scholar Award (2011) and three NEH Summer Institute Grants (2017, 2014, and 2007). His publications include the following books: Algeria on Screen: The Films of Merzak Allouache (forthcoming), Francophone Cul- tures through Film (2013, coauthored with Cécile Accilien), Hommage à Kateb Yacine (2006), and North African Mosaic: A Cultural Re-appraisal of Ethnic and Religious Minorities (2007, coedited with Joseph Krause). Nabil is also the coeditor of two special issues of the Journal of North African Studies, devoted to cinema, literature, and the arts in the Maghreb. Nabil has also published 66490_Gott490_Gott & KKealhofer-Kemp.inddealhofer-Kemp.indd iixx 111/09/201/09/20 77:03:03 PPMM x NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS articles in refereed journals on various topics, including French cinema, land- scape in Édouard Glissant’s work, Albert Camus and Algeria, the language issue in the Maghreb, Berber oral tradition, the use of history in Maghrebian literature, and William Faulkner and the Francophone world.