The Door of the Journey of No Return: A Cinema of (Up)rooting and Decentring in Rachid Bouchareb's Little Senegal

Abstract

The histories of colonialism and slavery have carved triangular paths between Western Europe, West Africa and the Americas which continue to haunt the descendants of enslaved people and shape their movements across the Atlantic. This chapter focuses on Rachid Bouchareb's 2001 film Little Senegal to reveal the importance of transnational movement, translingual dialogue and the decentred relationship with the Anglo- and Franco-spheres which defines Rachid Bouchareb's work. It provides an overview of the transnational trajectory of Bouchareb's filmmaking career, revealing the linguistic, cultural and geographic hybridity of his films, before focusing in on Little Senegal as an emblematic example of his decentred cinema. Show more