Art_Africa_2016_03_

ARTAFRICA

The problem with commercial distribution abroad is that the films are considered representative

of national culture – made to meet international audiences’ expectations of what a Maghrebi or

Arab film is. At a round table discussion during the JCC, I spoke about the ways in which some

films by women filmmakers did quite well with commercial distribution in Europe, but they

were not considered as ‘films by women filmmakers’ but as ‘films on the condition of women.’

Basically, films by women filmmakers with no female protagonists do not get any attention. The

fact that people do not ask themselves whose perspective it is erases the specificity of some of

these films.

An example is The Silences of the Palace by Moufida Tlatli, about the lives of bonded women

in a palace during the struggle for Tunisian independence. In France this film was regarded

as a film about the fate of Maghrebi women, a reading which overlooked its significance as a

historic Tunisian film. The history of feminism in Tunisia is very specific so, to a certain extent,

not integrating such films into a larger reading means missing a lot about the films. In France

we often talk about Maghrebi cinema, which covers three national cinemas with very distinct

histories, film cultures, film aesthetics and patterns of industrial development. Even though I

understand the need for categories, putting all these cinemas under one all-encompassing banner

of ‘Maghrebi cinema’ erases the specificity of each national cinema. There is a need for a festival

like Carthage to propose a larger variety of films and a less reductive analytical framework.

What steps do you think need to be taken for people to begin seeing Arab and African

cinema in this light?

I think we need to develop spaces in which people can come together, talk and learn about

films. I interviewed Alia Arasoughly for a volume I am co-editing on the circulation of films in

North Africa and the Middle East. Alia has created Shashat, a non-governmental organisation

committed to developing women’s cinema in Palestine. Shashat trains women filmmakers who

make short films that circulate in community centres, refugee camps and universities around

the West Bank and Gaza during an annual festival. Discussions are organised as a platform for

FEATURE / CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVALFEATURE / CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL

CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL / IN CONVERSATION WITH PATRICIA CAILLE 8/20

“Even though I understand the need for

categories, putting all these cinemas under one

all-encompassing banner of ‘Maghrebi cinema’

erases the specificity of each national cinema.

There is a need for a festival like Carthage to

propose a larger variety of films and a less

reductive analytical framework.”