Translingualism and Race Passing in Samba: On Fantasies of Migrant Identity in Contemporary France

With its translingual dialogue in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Serbian, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano's film Samba depicts the use of languages other than French as both a hindrance and an asset for migrants in contemporary France. This article analyses how an Algerian character, Walid, engages in the practice of race passing by disguising himself as Brazilian. It draws on scholarship about the practice of race passing to analyze Walid's hybrid, translingual identity. Mapping the film against a broader study of the importance of language in French films about passing, it reveals how the shifting identities of Samba's migrant characters become sites where axes of oppression and empowerment intersect.