Screens and Veils

<p>Examined within their economic cultural and political context the work of women Maghrebi filmmakers forms a cohesive body of work. Florence Martin examines the intersections of nation and gender in seven films showing how directors turn around the politics of the gaze as they play with the various meanings of the Arabic term <i>hijab </i>(veil curtain screen). Martin analyzes these films on their own theoretical terms developing the notion of transvergence to examine how Maghrebi women's cinema is flexible playful and transgressive in its themes aesthetics narratives and modes of address. These are distinctive films that traverse multiple cultures both borrowing from and resisting the discourses these cultures propose.</p>