Muslim Women in French Cinema: Voices of Maghrebi Migrants in France by Leslie Kealhoffer-Kemp (review)

Reviews 249 Kealhoffer-Kemp, Leslie. Muslim Women in French Cinema: Voices of Maghrebi Migrants in France. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78138-481-7. Pp. 226. £75. Although a good deal of excellent work has already been done on French films featuring Maghrebi immigrants and their descendants (or on what Carrie Tarr has termed “Beur and banlieue filmmaking in France”), Kealhoffer-Kemp’s book has a great deal to add. Her work on the portrayal of first-generation immigrant women from the Maghreb focuses on characters of similar backgrounds, allowing her to make important and previously unavailable comparisons with different forms of media presentations of the same issues, including feature-length films, documentaries, short films, and, perhaps most interesting, films made for television (téléfilms), a widely influential genre to which Francophiles living in the United States have only sporadic access, if any. A useful bibliographical chart at the end of the book tells us how these materials can be accessed in Paris libraries and, in the case of the major films and some of the téléfilms, in the United States. Even in the area of feature films, many of which are available on DVD and thus more likely to be included in the American curriculum, Kealhoffer-Kemp’s study provides a panorama of various portraits of the Maghrebian immigrant woman—some giving voice to a hidden past of participation in the struggle for Algerian independence (as in Rachida Krim’s 1997 Sous les pieds des femmes), some portraying a strong woman who learns to assert her independence as she adjusts to a new culture (as in Yamina Benguigui’s 2001 Inch’Allah dimanche) and others revealing a figure of conformity to a now-outmoded traditional female role (as in Philippe Faucon’s 2001 Samia). Even to those of us who have frequently taught some of these films, Kealhoffer-Kemp’s analysis is a useful reminder that generalizations cannot easily be made—about immigrant films or about the reality of immigrant women’s experience . In the case of a genre like the téléfilm, to which most of us have only intermittent access at best, this study makes a real contribution to our knowledge. Because of the need to attract a substantial viewing audience, these ninety-minute films, usually scheduled after the eight o’clock evening news, must be careful not to offend viewers. Yet, because they are available to wide audiences, they may have a greater effect on French images of immigrant women than the films designed for traditional movie theaters. As is the case in other genres studied here, Benguigui has been influential, and her multi-part series Aïcha (2009–12) entertainingly treats issues of women’s empowerment. Kealhoffer-Kemp’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in the integration of Muslims in contemporary France—a topic that has again become controversial. Dartmouth College (NH) Mary Jean Green ...