Les mirages de l’émigration au miroir du cinéma égyptien

Abstract

Based on a corpus from « the new wave of emigration films », this article aims to explore the visions conveyed by Egyptian cinema on massive economic migration. Are these film representations different from scientific, literary or media discourses? Beyond their dream of material success and fear of cultural alienation, migrants seem to constantly question the foundations of national imagination. Following a brief description of the corpus, we sketched a map of the imaginary migrations of films, which migrations are primarily to the West, although the majority of Egyptians are in the Gulf region. Films, as well as literature, create a pessimistic vision of migration, and condemn both host countries and Egyptian society. Is a new transnational film production emerging, one that encompasses the possibility of dual identity, of being both from here and from there?

Keywords

• cinema
• Egypt
• Migration
• Nationalism
• transnational