South of the capital: Geographies of resistance in Maghrebi-French Film

Beur and banlieue cinemas are most commonly associated with Paris and its adjoining areas, thus obscuring the significance of other geographical spaces present in these films. Port cities, which for the most part appear as mere points of transit, play a less perceptible yet equally important role in the realist aesthetic of these films. Through a study of two films -Karim Dridi's Bye-Bye and Abdellatif Kechiche's La graine et le mulet- this article suggests that cities such as Marseille and Sète appear as spaces of affirmation and resistance, providing a necessary alternative to Paris as privileged topos of representation and dominant space in beur and banlieue cinemas.