An article by Assistant Professor of French Claire Mouflard was recently published in the Canadian peer-reviewed journal of film studies Cinémas. The article is titled "Les revenants: l'Algérie et le retour du refoulé dans le cinéma français" ("The Revenants: Algeria and the Return of the Repressed in French Cinema"). It examines the trope of the undead in Robin Campillo's 2003 film "Les revenants" and in Michael Haneke's 2005 film "Caché" as a means to address France's collective repression of the events and aftermath of the Algerian War.
In particular, Mouflard argues that the narrative and cinematographic devices used by both filmmakers create a dialogue between the Algerian War and the sociopolitical context of the early 2000s in France, marked by increased nationalist discourses from the French government and by the growing exclusion of second-generation immigrants, which eventually led to the "banlieue riots" of 2005.
