Diaspora on a Journey. Intergenerational Gap, the Myth of a Glorious Return and Other Mythologising Techniques in Ismaël Ferroukhi’s „The Great Journey” and „The Edge of Heaven” by Fatih Akın

Adam Domalewski

domalewski.adam@gmail.com
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4313-5146

Abstract

The article deals with two films, which are examples of contemporary diasporic cinema, whose characters come from countries with a Muslim religious tradition: from Turkey and Morocco. The Great Journey (2004) by Ismaël Ferroukhi and The Edge of Heaven (2007) by Fatih Akın are films about the intergenerational distance in diaspora families, and the formula of the road cinema used in them illustrates the attempt of the heroes to get closer to themselves thanks to a joint (The Great Journey) or separate (The Edge of Heaven) overcoming large spaces. In both of these films there is a characteristic theme of diasporic cinema, which is the myth of a glorious return. Both films also take the form of film parables whose significance is rooted in Islamic spirituality and beliefs. Whilst the two films are not religious in the strict sense, they strongly mythologise space: in a positive manner in the case of The Great Journey and negative in The Edge of Heaven.


Keywords:

Fatih Akın, Ismaël Ferroukhi, diasporic cinema, road movies, islam

Bartczak Magdalena, Obrazy i języki melancholii w nowym kinie tureckim, w: Nowe kino Turcji, pod red. J. Topolskiego, Kraków– Warszawa 2010, s. 93–124.
  Google Scholar

Bartes Roland, Mitologie, przeł. A. Dziadek, Wydawnictwo KR, Warszawa 2000.
  Google Scholar

Bayrakdar Deniz, Turkish Cinema and the New Europe: At the Edge of Heaven, [w:] Cinema and Politics: Turkish Cinema and The New Europe, ed. by D. Bayrakdar, Cambridge 2009, s. 118–128.
  Google Scholar

Berghahn Daniela, Far-Flung Families in Film. The Diasporic Family in Contemporary European Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2013.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748642908.001.0001   Google Scholar

Cadé Michel, Hidden Islam: The Role of the Religious in Beur and Banlieue Cinema, w: Screening Integration. Recasting Maghrebi Immigration In Contemporary France, ed. S. Durmelat, V. Swamy, University Of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 2011, s. 41–57.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1df4gr4.6   Google Scholar

Domalewski Adam, Między Koreą i Europą. O dramaturgii filmów Kim Ki-duka, „Images” 2015, vol. XVI, no. 25, s. 53–63.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/i.2015.25.03   Google Scholar

Elsaesser Thomas, European Cinema. Face to Face with Hollywood, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2005.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/9789053565940   Google Scholar

Göktürk Deniz, World Cinema Goes Digital: Looking at Europe from the Other Shore, w: Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium. Sites, Sounds, and Screens, ed. by S. Hake, B. Mennel, New York–Oxford 2014, s. 198–211.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qcjhz.19   Google Scholar

Hargreaves Alec G., From “Ghettoes” to Globalization: Situating Maghrebi-French Filmmakers, w: Screening Integration. Recasting Maghrebi Immigration In Contemporary France, ed. S. Durmelat, V. Swamy, University Of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 2011, s. 25–40.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1df4gr4.5   Google Scholar

Higbee Will, “Et si on allait en Alg érie?” Home, Displacement, and the Myth of Return in Recent Journey Films by Maghrebi-French and North African Émigré Directors, w: Screening Integration. Recasting Maghrebi Immigration In Contemporary France, ed. S. Durmelat, V. Swamy, University Of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 2011, s. 58–76.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1df4gr4.7   Google Scholar

Loska Krzysztof, Hybrydowość i transkulturowy pejzaż muzyczny w kinie diasporycznym, „Kwartalnik Filmowy” 2015, nr 91, s. 142–153.
  Google Scholar

Loska Krzysztof, Tożsamość w przejściu – filmowe wizerunki mniejszości tureckiej w Niemczech, „Kultura Współczesna” 2011, nr 2, s. 11–23.
  Google Scholar

Machtans Karolin, The Perception and Marketing of Fatih Akın in the German Press, w: Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium. Sites, Sounds, and Screens, ed. by S. Hake, B. Mennel, New York–Oxford 2014, s. 149–160.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qcjhz.15   Google Scholar

Marciniak Magdalena, Japonia – „reżim idealny” Rolanda Barthesa, „Czasopismo Filozoficzne” 2010, nr 6, s. 104–113.
  Google Scholar

Naficy Hamid, An Accented Cinema. Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford 2001.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186214   Google Scholar

Plate S. Brent, Religion and Film. Cinema and the Re-creation of the World, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, New York 2017.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/plat17674   Google Scholar

Radkiewicz Małgorzata, Postacie dojrzałych kobiet w interpretacji Hanny Schygulli (Zimowa podróż Hansa Steinbichlera i Na krawędzi nieba Fatiha Akina), w: Kino Hanny Schygulli, red. A. Gwóźdź, Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT, Wrocław 2015, s. 145–166.
  Google Scholar

Redmon Allen H., Locating Heaven: Fatih Akin’s Meditation on the Outcome of Tolerance and Hospitality, „Journal of Religion & Film” 2016, Vol. 14, Iss. 1, Article 6.
  Google Scholar


Published
2019-09-30

Cited by

Domalewski, A. (2019) “Diaspora on a Journey. Intergenerational Gap, the Myth of a Glorious Return and Other Mythologising Techniques in Ismaël Ferroukhi’s „The Great Journey” and „The Edge of Heaven” by Fatih Akın”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (107), pp. 73–87. doi: 10.36744/kf.158.

Authors

Adam Domalewski 
domalewski.adam@gmail.com
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4313-5146

Doktor nauk o sztuce, absolwent filmoznawstwa i teatrologii, adiunkt w Instytucie Filmu, Mediów i Sztuk Audiowizualnych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza. Zajmuje się badaniami filmu i religii; obecnie przygotowuje monografię dotyczącą obrazów islamu w europejskim kinie diasporycznym. Publikował m.in. w „Images” i „Ekranach”.



Statistics

Abstract views: 378
PDF downloads: 503


License

Copyright (c) 2019 Kwartalnik Filmowy

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.

In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.