Undoing stereotypical representations in Arab and Muslim cinemas : challenges, interruptions, and possibilities

Abstract EN

Troubled by a history of misconceptions on Western silver screens, Arab and Muslim filmmakers have kept their cinematic productions thematically close to the reality of their postcolonial cultural and social conditions, while trying to represent their communities in complex ways.

In many efforts of artistic excellence, the films they make aim to reverse the frisson of alterity upon which the conception of their disgraced images have been historically predicated; in the process, the films aspire to alter these images and representations.

Rarely however does the work of these Arab and Muslim filmmakers reach a global audience.

This article locates themes and creative forms in many cinematic narratives of representation, and recommends their interpretation and mediation to a global audience.

The article responds to a recent “intellectual turn” in contemporary debate on Arab and Muslim films, calling for the invention of a category called “Muslim Cinema”.

The article contextualizes this turn within the contours of Western institutions as sites of epistemological authority and examines its epistemological, racial, and ideological implications and underpinnings in connection to representation.