Sites of Transcultural Exchange: Algiers in the Cinema of Merzak Allouache

Abstract

Thanks to its history, geographical position, and political significance, the city of Algiers is a key site of transcultural exchange. Algiers has also played a crucial role in the formation of Algerian national and cultural identities. Nowhere is the city’s role clearer than in Algerian cinema, in which the Algerian capital features as a privileged locus. However, there are a lack of longitudinal analyses of Algiers’s representations on film and the ways in which the transculturality of its urban and maritime spaces have been configured. This article seeks to address these lacunae by examining works by Algeria’s leading director, Merzak Allouache. Through close analysis of five films that range across five decades, it probes the extent to which the pivotal Mediterranean port city has been presented in cinema as a transcultural space.