Abstract
In 2016, emigration is more than ever a massive phenomenon in Egypt which both strongly affects the everyday lives of Egyptians and is central in Egyptian cultural production. This article aims to explore how the Egyptian cinema contributes to forging a binary code that differentiates between “Egyptian” and “For-eigner”. It argues that Egyptians who live abroad may also be perceived as potential foreigners for those left in Egypt. After briefly describing the corpus of seven emigration films, the article sketches a cartog-raphy of the geographic imaginaries of migration, which is paradoxically more oriented toward the West, while in fact the majority of Egyptians abroad are in the Gulf. Finally, it demonstrates how movie directors have produced a very pessimistic vision of emigration, in a manner that is equally critical of the countries of arrival as of Egyptian society. Their discourse on the theme of the migrant’s identity, on the personal, familial and national levels, resonates with the social imaginary concerning migration, which is dominated by a nationalist paradigm. Are we nevertheless witnessing the emergence of a transnational cinema, that is, one that envisages the possibility of an identity that is simultaneously of here and elsewhere?Key words: Egypt, cinema, migration, transnational, foreigner
Highlights
In 2016, emigration is more than ever a massive phenomenon in Egypt which both strongly affects the everyday lives of Egyptians and is central in Egyptian cultural production
It argues that Egyptians who live abroad may be perceived as potential foreigners for those left in Egypt
In 2016, with several million Egyptians living abroad, emigration is more than ever a massive phenomenon in Egypt which both strongly affects the everyday lives of Egyptians1 and is central in Egyptian cultural production,2 since emigration is a core theme for writers and filmmakers, who themselves have very often been migrants
Summary
1027. – For two recent counterparts from Tunisia, cf. films no. #16 and #20 in Stephan GUTH’s contribution to the present dossier. 11 Several films or TV series dealing with migrations were released after 2011. [Maryam AbūAwf (Mariam Abou Ouf), 2014] demonstrates how government and media question the loyalty of bi-nationals: Amīra, an Anglo-Egyptian living in London is enthusiastic during the 25 January revolution and decides to come back to Egypt with her family. In the end, she is arrested and accused of being a spy. Most films dealing with emigration seem to be underpinned by a moral aimed at trying to limit emigration
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