WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FRENCH?: SCREENING NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH FILMS

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate how films explore, articulate and dwell on what it means to be French. It considers the ongoing debate in France regarding national identity and immigration. It builds on this debate by extending discussions beyond the political sphere and into the public sphere that cinema occupies. I trace this discourse to the legacy of the Algerian War and its impact on France’s ethnic and immigration politics. I will investigate the representation of the Algerian War in Indigènes, L’Ennemi intime and Caché, suggesting that the portrayal of the Algerian War memories complicates France’s understanding of its own identity. Following that, I examine the depiction of France’s preoccupation with immigration in La Haine, La Petite Jerusalem and La graine et le mulet. Through a close-reading of these films, I contend that the exclusionary practice of France’s national identity is a result of their own self-imposed anxiety towards the immigrant community.