Discourse, migration and cinema

Abstract

Considering the growing number of people forced to migrate due to factors such as wars and misery, this study turns to the examination of the representation of migrants in the discursive universe based on two cinematographic works: the acclaimed Que horas ela volta? (2015), written and directed by Anna Muylaert, and Fatima (2015), French movie directed by Philippe Faucon. The movies taken as object of study have as protagonists women who left their homeland to work as domestic servants in more developed countries or cities. This work aims to analyze the representation of women belonging to marginalized groups in order to compare the reality of minorities represented in Brazil and France by the discourses mobilized by/in both movies. The corpus was analyzed in the light of discursive semiotics, especially its discursive level, since the ideologies conveyed by such movies can be apprehended in their thematic and figurative paths. Among the main themes discussed, the movies have in common the subordination of the maid, patriarchy and the inferiority of the immigrant (Northeastern, in the case of the Brazilian movie, and Muslim, in the case of the French movie). As a response to such ideologies, the enunciators in both cases present the theme of questioning the social order, which is represented, on screen, by the daughters of these two women. Although this theme is dealt with in different ways, as it involves different countries and cultures, both works provoke in the enunciatees a reflection on the existing inequalities in western society

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).