Class Struggle and Religious Difference in the Workplace: The Politics of Representing Islam in Rabah Ameur‐Zaïmeche's Dernier maquis (2008). Issue 4 (December 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Higbee, Will
• Is Part Of: Working USA. Volume 16:Issue 4(2013)
• Page Start: 525
• Page End: 536
• Publication Date: 2013-12
• Subjects: Labor unions -- Periodicals; Labor -- Periodicals; Working class -- Periodicals; Labor unions -- United States -- Periodicals; Labor -- United States -- Periodicals; Working class -- United States -- Periodicals; 331
• DOI: 10.1111/wusa.12078
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1089-7011

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>The aim of this article is to explore how the 2008 film <italic>Dernier maquis</italic>, by Maghrebi‐French director Rabah Ameur‐Zaïmeche, attempts to correct a perceived absence in French cinema of Islam by focusing its narrative on the conflict that ensues between Mao, a French Muslim boss, and his Muslim immigrant workers, when Mao unilaterally appoints an imam to preside over the mosque he has constructed for his workers in a pallet yard located on a remote industrial estate on the outskirts of Paris. The article analyzes how, in <italic>Dernier maquis</italic>, Ameur‐Zaïmeche combines issues of class struggle and exclusion of the immigrant worker in contemporary France, with the potentially problematic place of ethnic and religious difference within the Republican nation.</p> </abstract>