Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

9-2013

Abstract

This article compares the treatment of memory and the transmission of memory in Yamina Benguigui’s Mémoires d’immigrés: l’héritage maghrébin (1997) with the treatment of these themes in five other documentaries directed by Maghrebi-French women – all of which were released after Mémoires d’immigrés: Yasmina Kherfi’s Mes voisines mes copines (2002), Djamila Sfaxi’s À ma mère (2003), Rahma Benhamou El Madani’s Du côté de chez soi (2003), Soraya Nini’s 24 heures dans la Life de ma mère (2007) and Fatima Sissani’s La langue de Zahra (2011). It argues that in contrast to Benguigui’s foregrounding of collective experiences of Maghrebi migrant women in Mémoires d’immigrés, these five documentaries highlight the specificity of the memories and experiences of the directors’ mothers and in doing so problematize the very idea that there exists a collective trajectory or set of experiences with regard to Maghrebi migrants in France. When considered together, these films reflect a shift away from the universalizing and collective view of Maghrebi migration that is set forth in Benguigui’s documentary.

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