Join us for this event in the "A World of Migrants" series featuring Dr. Valérie Orlando: The "Burning Sea": Depicting Tragedies of Illegal Mediterranean Crossings in Maghrebi Cinema
February 18, 2021
12:00-1:00pm
Zoom: 910 3949 8172
Since 2000, Maghrebi films and literature written and produced primarily in French by Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian authors, journalists and filmmakers, focusing on the theme of the Harragas, have been numerous. Harraga, the Arabic word of choice for illegal immigration across the Mediterranean Sea, literarily means "to burn." The verb connotes both the physical action of burning identity papers on the beach before embarking (so that immigrants' bodies cannot be identified either in Europe or back on the shores of their own countries), and the symbolic erasures of Maghrebi nationalities that have afforded little socioeconomic means to and for their citizens to live decent lives. This presentation focuses primarily on two millennial films -- Harragas (Merzak Allouache, Algeria, 2010) and Frontières (Mostefa Djadam, 2002) -- to discuss the tragedy of Mediterranean clandestine immigration.
About Dr. Valérie Orlando
Valérie Orlando is a Professor of French & Francophone Literatures in the Department of French & Italian at the University of Maryland, College Park. In AY 2019-2020 she was the recipient of the Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair Award, Université Lumière Lyon II, Lyon, France (Fall 2019) and a Research Fellow at Le Collegium de Lyon, L'institut d'études avancées de l'Université de Lyon (Spring 2020).
Her research and teaching focus on Francophone writing from Africa and the Caribbean, African Cinema, and French literature and culture. She previously taught at Illinois Wesleyan University (1999-2006); Purdue University (1997-1999); and Eastern Mediterranean University in the Northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus (1996-1997).