A Hand that Holds a Machete: Race and the Representation of the Displaced in Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan

Koksal, O. and Rappas-Celik, I.A. 2019. A Hand that Holds a Machete: Race and the Representation of the Displaced in Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan. Third Text. 33 (2), pp. 256-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2019.1590067

TitleA Hand that Holds a Machete: Race and the Representation of the Displaced in Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan
TypeJournal article
AuthorsKoksal, O. and Rappas-Celik, I.A.
Abstract

This article explores the norms, spaces, positions and conditions of visibility for non-white refugees and migrants as well as white non-refugee characters in Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, 2015), a film which received much praise for its humane representation of refugees and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Through a close analysis, this article aims to demonstrate number of recurring elements that are often determined by imaginations of race in European film productions that represent refugees and migrants. Analysing the film, along with its production and reception, this study shows how European whiteness remains the invisible norm of non-violence, while the non-whiteness of the displaced remains outside this norm and is visibly and unquestionably locked into acts, positions, objects (holding a machete) and spaces of violence and crisis: the jungle, the refugee camp, the banlieue, the darkness of a cellar.

KeywordsDheepan
Jacques Audiard
Migrants and Refugees in film
Race
Whiteness
Displacement
JournalThird Text
Journal citation33 (2), pp. 256-267
ISSN0952-8822
Year2019
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2019.1590067
Web address (URL)https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2019.1590067
Publication dates
Published online08 Apr 2019

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