Visions of struggle in women{u2019}s filmmaking in the Mediterranean

This provocative collection elaborates a trans-cultural definition of being a woman in struggle. Looking at the films of women directors in countries in the Mediterranean rim, this book spurs a contemporary discussion of women s human, civil, and social rights while situating feminist arguments on women s identity, roles, psychology and sexuality. Although their methodologies are diverse, these artists are united in their use of cinema as a means of intervention, taking on the role as outspoken and leading advocates for women s problems. Contributors examine the ways in which cinematic art reproduces and structures the discourses of realism and represents Mediterranean women s collective experience of struggle. Front Matter....Pages i-xxxii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Veiling and Unveiling the Israeli Mediterranean: Yulie Cohen-Gerstel’s My Terrorist and My Land Zion....Pages 3-19 Front Matter....Pages 20-20 The Wiles of Maghrebi Women’s Cinema....Pages 23-41 Front Matter....Pages 42-42 Visions and Voices of the Self in Take My Eyes....Pages 45-60 Front Matter....Pages 61-61 Mutilating and Mutilated Bodies: Women’s Takes on “Extreme” French Cinema....Pages 63-80 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Anthropological Anxieties: Roberta Torre’s Critique of Mafia Violence....Pages 83-101 Front Matter....Pages 102-102 Vertigo in the Balkans: Karin Jurschick’s “The Peacekeepers and the Women”....Pages 105-126 Front Matter....Pages 127-127 Maria, Irene and Olga “`la recherche du temps perdu ...”....Pages 129-145 Front Matter....Pages 146-146 Hard to Bear: Women’s Burdens in the Cinema of Yeşim Ustaoğlu....Pages 149-164 Front Matter....Pages 165-165 This Woman’s Work: Filming Defeat in the Arabic Idiom: Poetry, Cinema, and the Saving Grace of Hala Alabdallah....Pages 167-182 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 “Death is the fairest cover for her shame” Framing Honor Killings....Pages 185-212 Back Matter....Pages 213-224 "Visions of Struggle engages with long-standing feminist issues in new ways. Moving around the Mediterranean basin, together these essays form a multi-colored patchwork that encompasses documentary, feature-length fiction, and hybrid, experimental film. In their essays, the ten contributors explore the ways the region's female inhabitants experience, confront, and counter terrorism, abuse, forced marriage, sex trafficking, honor killings, and war. A critical assessment not only of female vulnerability in the twenty-first century but also of resilience, creativity, and strength, Visions of Struggle provides a sorely needed and eminently strategic update to questions facing both women and film."--Chris Holmlund, Chair, Cinema Studies Program and Professor, Cinema Studies, Women's Studies, and French, University of Tennessee In this survey, contributors examine issues of women's rights violations in Mediterranean countries as represented in politically engaged films of the region. In this survey, contributors examine issues of women's rights violations in Mediterranean countries as represented in politically engaged films of the region