Films in transition

The rhetorical embodiment of the Years of Lead in Moroccan cinema (2000-2018)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3979268
AutoresLidia Peralta García (0000-0003-2934-0108, University of Castilla-La Mancha, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen28
Número2
Páginas325-346
Fecha de publicación2023-03-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2022.2028624
OpenAlexW4205655930
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas21

This article focusses on Moroccan films that thematize the socially repressive period of authoritarian regime known as the ‘Years of Lead’. The general objective is to determine their rhetorical embodiment as it pertains to the apparatus of state violence and to identify activist possibilities that resonate with the artistic form of cinema. The 18 surveyed films have been chosen from a total census of 367 recorded in the official Moroccan Cinematographic Center’s (Centre Cinématographique Marocain; CCM) catalogue and have been explored by locating their significance in the intersection between rhetoric and collective memory. The methodology has been complemented by conducting semi-structured interviews with fifteen professionals of the world of cinema and literature. The main hypothesis initially assumed that the cinema about the Years of Lead would be rhetorically permutated by the representation of prison life and torture. However, the findings show that films about torture are a minority. The films mostly consider post-prison life, probably in response to the need to overcome the pain and trauma left behind. However, there is little indictment so far of the past regime and there are many under-represented topics, such as the realities of the tortures or the torture tools and methods. The use of symbolic and metaphorical narration is, however, a constant

Aesthetics · Art · Censorship · Criminology · Film industry · Human rights · Indictment · Literature · Media studies · Movie theater · Narrative · Political science · Prison · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Torture · African history and culture studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Law · North African History and Literature · Philosophy