Between diaspora and region: Tony Gatlif and Mehdi Ben Attia

Abstract

The article investigates the creative tensions between diaspora and region as they appear in queer Maghrebi francophone visual culture. By examining two important films from Maghrebi-French cinema – Tony Gatlif’s Exils (2004) and Mehdi Ben Attia’s Le fil (2009) – the article theorizes an affective understanding of diaspora and regionality wherein ephemeral aesthetic objects constitute regional archives of feeling and assemblages that reveal the messy complexities of identity, space, and belonging in a Maghrebi postcolonial setting. In so doing, the article also aims to ascertain how regional constellations of queer diasporic aesthetics may lead to new forms of kinship and community for minority ethnic and sexual subjects.