A Narrative of An Ideological Destruction: Where Do We Go Now?

Abstract

Lebanese filmmaker, actress, and screenwriter Nadine Labaki’s 2011 film Where Do We Go Now? is about the ideological manipulation that gradually results in a big conflict among people in a rural Middle Eastern village where Muslims and Christians live in a peaceful existence. Labaki is known for her politically engaged narratives which refer to the recent political past of Lebanese whilst centralizing strong female figures. Where Do We Go Now? is no exception, and thus, reflects the director's general cinematic style and political attitude. Labaki invites her audience through the comedy to question ideology which interpellates and thus constructs the individual as a subject by revealing the ways ideology creates differences, separation, and conflict among people. In this context, this article strives to analyze the film Where Do We Go Now? employing critical discourse analysis with references to Althusser's conceptualization of ideology and Subject-subject formation.