"The Trees POV": Refugee Landscapes in Postrevolutionary Tunisian Cinema

Abstract

In early 2011, at the height of the so-called Arab Spring, Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime (r. 1969–2011) started to disintegrate. As violence convulsed Libya, hundreds of thousands of people fled across the borders into Tunisia and Egypt—not only Libyans, but also third-country nationals who had been living and working within Libyan borders, many from sub-Saharan Africa.1 In response, and against the backdrop of a newfound revolutionary idealism, the Tunisian government chose to keep the border open.2 In February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established the Choucha refugee camp, located eleven kilometers from the Ras Jadir border post—Tunisia’s first refugee camp since the Algerian war in 1962.3 That same month, the filmmakers Ismaël, Youssef Chebbi, and Ala Eddine Slim drove south from Tunis to Choucha to make a film.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Publication Date

2-2025

Publication Title

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Department

Comparative Literature

Document Type

Other

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743825100731

Notes

Section: Ecocritical Terrains; Rethinking Tamazghan and Middle Eastern Environments Roundtable

Language

English

Format

text

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