Le cinéma de banlieue: Teaching Immigration, Teaching Perspective

Abstract

This article proposes an approach to teaching immigration in France through film. I discuss a sequence of three films—Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, La haine by Mathieu Kassovitz, and Wesh wesh, qu’est-ce qui se passe? by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche—in order to show how they allow for an exploration of issues surrounding immigration and, more importantly, how they illustrate different representational approaches to the subject. The ambition of the sequence is to attune students to the different ways in which directors look at and talk about immigration and to sensitize them to the implications of these choices.