Open Roads Closed Borders

<p><em>Open Roads Closed Borders</em> is the first collection of essays about French-language road movies a particularly rich yet critically neglected cinematic category. These films the contributors argue offer important perspectives on contemporary French ideas about national identity France's former colonies Europe and the rest of the world. Taken together the essays illustrate how travel and road motifs have enabled directors of various national origins and backgrounds to reimagine space and move beyond simple oppositions such as Islam and secularism local and global home and away France and Africa and East and West.</p>