| This dissertation intends to fill a gap in the analysis of political films created by French-language filmmakers. Only a few critics have treated this subject; their theoretical works consider broad issues and lack in-depth analyses of relevant artistic works, which have a quite limited distribution in Europe and the US. These works representing undocumented migrants and asylum seekers are significant because they capture how the state is being undermined by ongoing privatization, evident in the use of private companies to run detention centers, and by the militarization of daily life. These films capture a period (2004-2011) when in France and Switzerland all political parties were shifting to the Right and when the ideas of the National Front and the UDC had never been so popular. Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers have often been ignored or represented as a threat to national security and prosperity. However, as my analyses of Costa-Gavras' Eden a l'ouest, Klotz's La Blessure, and Melgar's Vol special document, films focusing on migrants have the potential to shape our understanding of the encampment of Europe and offer an important examination of issues such as the unrelenting tension between workers and sans-papiers, police brutality during border crossing, housing and living conditions---issues that French-speaking cinema has seldom dared to tackle. In addition to analyzing and contextualizing these three films both formally and thematically, I examine their contributions to or departures from a sub-genre of contemporary French cinema that could be termed "cinema mythologique.". |
