‘Images of Diversity’: Film Policy and the State Struggle for the Representation of Difference in French Cinema

Abstract

This chapter considers the complexity of encouraging diversity through film policy through close analyses of the best-known films supported by the program, with particular attention to successful films by French Maghrebi and other minority directors. These films will be discussed in the fuller context of their box office success and critical reception, and minority filmmaking more generally. Finally, these films will be analysed within the range of works supported by the Images de la diversité fund to assess the extent to which national agencies can promote diversity through a multicultural politics of representation. In short, this chapter asks whether, in a country known for its national cinema, a carefully constructed film policy can intervene in an ongoing cultural debate about the changing character of the nation. By considering films that incorporate a cross-Mediterranean gaze, the chapter also considers how themes of migration and immigration are treated in France and in the Maghreb.