The myth of masculinity in the films of Merzak allouache

Abstract

The Algerian filmaker Merzak Allouache has made a series of films taht describe the formations of masculinity in Algeria of he post-Independence period. The present paper focuses on three feature films made between the dates of 1976 and 2002, tracing the director's initial framing of mythical discourses of masculinity to an increasingly oppositional and alternative gender construction of the last film. The paper locates a nexus of discourses (colonial, national, Islamist) that inform the construction of masculinity in Algeria. It argues that a critical look at representations of masculinity is central to an analysis of North African identity due to the patriarchal nature odf its traditional society, a society which has been in a state of transformation since the colonial and postcolonial periods.