When good sentiments make for “bad” cinema: Reconsidering allegory in Un été à la goulette

Abstract

ABSTRACT  Set in Tunisia in 1966, Férid Boughedir's Un Été à La Goulette (1996) has been both dismissed as a “feel-good” movie and condemned as a heavy-handed allegory for inter-faith tolerance. Through readings of filmic and diegetic elements that subvert the film's superficial meanings, this essay suggests that Boughedir's allegorical project may be interpreted quite differently.

Keywords:

• Tunisian cinema
• Boughedir
• Jews and Arabs
• Allegory

Notes

Notes

1 See DVD extras for citations from Télé7Jours, Télérama, and Les Inrockuptibles.

2 Naomi Schor uses the term “bad object” to refer to critical works that have fallen from, or never enjoyed, favor in the academy. Here, I extend the term to cultural productions, as a reading practice that is “a risky business at worst and at best a means to go beyond certain impasses, to read at an angle …” (xv).

3 For a broad-ranging analysis of gender and allegory in North African film, see Flinn.

4 According to Blank, “… virginity might have been described as an object that is subject to seizure, a value that must be respected, or a covered or wrapped thing that must be unwrapped or unbound” (4).

5 Certainly, the nature of the conflict in the Middle East (from the 1960s to the present day) is far more intricate than can be accounted for in the scope of this essay. Suffice it to say, in such a context, the concepts of “purity,” “encroachment,” and “territory” are complex and multidirectional.

6 See Bivona for a detailed study of cuisine in La Goulette.

7 The Six-Day War (June 5–10, 1967) was a decisive victory for Israel, whose forces wrested control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt; the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem from Jordan; and the Golan Heights from Syria. As a secondary consequence, Jews living in Arab lands faced increased discrimination and pressure, eventually leading many to emigrate. In the Arab world, the conflict is known as an-Naksah or “the Setback.”