Dialects spark debate at Cairo film festival

[Al-khiyal]

Dialects spark debate at Cairo film festival

November 19, 2009 -- The use of local dialects on the big screen is arousing strong passions among film-makers, journalists and critics at this year's Cairo International Film Festival, if a recent seminar is any indication. Despite earning high honours at the festival, Algerian film-makers in particular came in for some fierce dialect-related criticism at the Friday (November 13th) seminar on their industry. Some seminar participants had strong objections to Algerian cinema's blend of colloquial Arabic and French.

However, Algerian director Lyes Salem fired back, saying: "The dialect is part of [my films'] identity, and diversity is an enriching factor. When I use Algerian dialect mixed with French or Berber vocabulary, that doesn't mean I've given up my identity." "Don't forget that we are Maghreb, Arab, Mediterranean and African at the same time, and that is an enriching factor rarely found in any other place in the world," added Salem, whose work Masquerades was named best film at the festival in 2008.

Algeria has a large presence in this year's event, with screenings set for 12 films. Algerian director Ahmed Rachedi has been honoured, and Salem himself is a member of the festival jury. Others came to the defence of local accents, including Algerian actor and director Belgacem Hadjaj, who expressed pride in "our Algerian dialect". For his part, Abdelkarim Bahloul, the first Algerian director to make a film in Tamazight, said language itself "isn't a barrier; it's one of the components of any cinematic work".

Other critics levelled the charge that the use of dialects in the Maghreb cinema was preventing it from enjoying wider popularity in the rest of the Arab world. On this point, Algeria found an ally in Moroccan film critic Chrifa Hawat, who called critics' invocation of the "dialect factor" simply "unacceptable". "[W]e in the Maghreb understand very well the Egyptian dialect, and the Syrian dialect, and this is because of our openness to them – it's something that the Maghreb audience has gotten used to. The Maghreb cinema, meanwhile, is almost non-existent for you [non-Maghreb people], and you watch it only on special occasions, such as annual festivals." The Algerian cinema industry "has now become a significant force, both in quantity and quality, and has a strong presence in the world", added Hawat.

Some of the sharpest criticism of the use of dialects came from Egyptians. Nevertheless, Egyptian film critic Khairia Bachlawi called Algerian cinema "the tempting fruit that doesn't come to us easily, and which we only know through these [festivals], rather than through theatres." "The seventh art in Algeria sustained a severe setback in the last decade because of brain drain and the flight of people with technical capacity from the sway of violence and terrorism, which haunted Algeria," acknowledged Bachlawi.

The head of the Euro-Arab Cinema Society in Paris, Magda Wacef, echoed Bachlawi, saying that the Algerian cinema "is enjoying its best days now, after a period in which Algerian film-makers almost stopped turning out new work due to the years of terrorism, in which extremists chased all the creative people out of Algeria". In the context of this cinematic revival, the representative of the Algerian Ministry of Culture, Zahia Ben Cheikh, talked about the government's new promotional strategy. The new steps include revising outdated laws governing the industry. Another hoped-for catalyst is funding: according to Ben Cheikh, the ministry has recently funded 27 films in various genres.

[BACK2MYROOTS]

Subtitles is the answer.


If you're passionate about world cinema, then put up and shut up. Just read the subtitles and enjoy. We do that with Japanese films don't we? Authenticity is vital, therefore it's important to avoid constructing unrealistic dialogues that bear no resemblance with speech in real life. Who cares, Algerian cinema is mainly for Algerians, isn't it? If you don't like it, don't watch it!!

To Algerians, language mixing [=code switching] comes naturally and is a phenomenon that isn't going to go away soon. Even large scale Arabisation programmes have failed to erase it! It might still happen, but not in my lifetime for sure.

Bear in mind also that we're not alone in this, ie using a mixed blend of languages in our cinema. Bollywood is full of it! English is routinely mixed with Indian languages in most, if not all Bollywood films.

[Jazaireya4ever]

BACK2MYROOTS

Algeria is wide and has different dialects spoken, this article makes up as if Algeria was a tiny nation with a single ethnicity, while it is clearly not the case. Not every dialect in Algeria has French in it and if Indians like having English things in their movies, it's because they are UK/USA wannabe people. BTW the accent ain't that great, so they should still try but without a BudBud accent. However, our issues are a lot deeper than that, more than a decade of colonisation would bear its fruits, without remembering their killings of shuyukh and Arabic teachers wherever they were found. We should ban French things from Algeria, that's my take on things, because up till now they are idolising the humiliation our parents and grand-parents had to put up with and all that French-speaking things could make people believe that we like it, while we don't, I guess. Anyways, enough ranting....

[Bent_Bladi]

Wow, i hate it when people expect the world to bend over backwards just to try to please them HAH losers

[Tipaza]

The problem with some Algerian movies is the language authenticity.
For example, in "Mascarades" and in "Cartouches gauloises", a few characters used West Algerian dialect while the film was set in East Algeria ... it was sort of puzzling.
It was much worse for "Viva Laldjérie", the dialogues were in French !! (N'importe quoi ! the actors were speaking French in Algeria, it was so unnatural!)

[Jazaireya4ever]

Lol Tipaza, I never watched any of these but yeah you're right that's just so annoying and unnatural. I came across some Algerian girl and no matter what you do, French is the dominant thing for some and I personally think that the Eastern dialect is a lot nicer than the Western one, or the Moroccan kind of dialect for those who leave in Wahran and all, as much as I love Wahran I just find them difficult while Moroccans, I just don't understand a word to be honnest. My rant about dialects...

[Tipaza]

What area are you from ? (I'd say from somewhere in the east of Algeria )
I understand most dialects (Moroccan included) BUT Tunisian is too hard for me !

PS: I prefer Algiers dialect.