Abstract
The voices of women filmmakers in the Mediterranean have often been overlooked by producers in a realm that is notoriously dominated by men. Ardizzoni’s chapter addresses this critical lacuna by focusing on a recent film by French-Moroccan director Houda Benyamina. Divines (2016) was inspired by France’s 2005 banlieue riots and follows two young women as they journey through the forgotten, destitute Parisian city projects. Benyamina’s directorial lens is focused on this energetic female friendship, which develops against the grainy background of the banlieue streets, the mosque, and the Roma slums that frame the protagonists’ lives. Ardizzoni’s analysis situates Benyamina’s Divines within the context of Beur filmmaking and analyzes its aesthetics and its political contribution to contemporary notions of feminist citizenship in the banlieue.
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Filmography
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Ardizzoni, M. (2020). Feminist Citizenship in the Banlieue: Houda Benyamina’s Divines (2016). In: Mielusel, R., Pruteanu, S. (eds) Citizenship and Belonging in France and North America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30158-3_8
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