Le Gone du Chaâba: Echoes of Dominant Discourses on Immigrants in France

Extract

[...] Ideological and Political Issues Related to Immigration, Cultures & Conflits [Online] winter 2006, published online inMarch consulted onOctober 30, 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/conflits/2136; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/conflits.2136 Guy, K. (1998). About the "Gone de Chaaba" Vacarme, 11a-11a. https://doi.org/10.3917/vaca.006.0011a Leyens, J.-P. (2012). The racist use of stereotypes. Are we all racists ? (p. 89-104). Mardaga https://shs.cairn.info/sommes-nous-tous-racistes--9782804700881-page-89?lang=fr. [...]

[...] López-Campos bodineau, C. (2012). Immigration in French and Quebec cinema through some films. Hommes & Migrations, 1297(3), 20-28. https://doi-org.bsg-ezproxy.univ-paris3.fr/10.4000/hommesmigrations.1541. Tcheuyap, A. & Lassi, É.-M. (2004). Filmic rewriting and discourse on immigration: Le gone du Chaâba by Azouz Begag and Christophe Ruggia. Tangence, 41-62. [...]

[...] Through the film, Christophe Ruggia allows us to grasp a more sensitive look at the challenges faced by immigrants in France, moving away from the institutional or media gaze and giving voice to the "realities" lived by his families." The story retraces an unknown period of time in the lives of Algerian families within the Châaba. The film alternates between several locations: - One sees the interior of Omar's home. There are scenes where he talks with his father and sister. The dialogues often revolve around education. They also mention reading. [...]

[...] He also tells him that he must be the best at school, better than Francis (the best in the class) who is a "French" boy (12'37). When he returns from school, Omar often works on his homework with his sister who helps him. She helps him recite his multiplication tables, and when he hesitates, it annoys his father. He tells him that he "must know everything" (29'03). As sociologist Rossella Spina's analysis shows, the repeated injunctions of the father, who is illiterate and sees school as the only possible future for his son, push Omar to surpass himself academically. [...]

[...] Thus, the film allows to show the difficulties and challenges that these families face in integrating, oscillating between precariousness, conservation of the culture of the country of origin and the will to integrate or even assimilate. 2. Analysis of dominant discourses At first, at the diegetic level, the film shows these relationships of domination through the interactions between the characters. It stages the way these discourses are internalized, reproduced or, on the contrary, rejected. We see thus the children torn between two cultures, being confronted notably to the institutions (School or police) to the contempt or condescension of the "French". [...]