Marginality and ordinary memory: body centrality and the plea for recognition in recent Algerian films

Monumental history seems to be fading in the films on contemporary Algeria. The unrest of the last decades has fractured false certainties and new images have since emerged. Although present, the relationship to France, as a colonial power, is secondary; this positioning allows a tangential critique of the Algerian political regime, while daily experiences are explored and given more exposure. In continuity with the films of the 1970s and 1980s, this exploration is mainly performed by female characters, with the particularity that they are left alone in their search for a better life and/or recognition. This paper aims to examine the aforementioned search in light of two major lines: first, the absence of strong male characters and the political and social marginality of female characters, and second, the contemporary expression of the logic of honour. Spatiality is central to the examination of the function of France as a constitutive part in the formation of Algerian (urban?) identities, be they problematic and highly conflictual. It allows shedding some light on the difficulty to foresee a possible change in the social structure and in the defining identities. In these contexts, social reality is raw and exposed, and life is so tenuous that the body becomes the prime target and the only shield to the violence. How then is speech rendered and how could it be transformative?