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Making OfNouri Bouzid2006

+Discussion Questions

1. This film focuses on the issue of Islamic terrorism. How does it address this issue? What, according to the film, causes Islamic terrorism? What is the point of view articulated by the film about Islamic terrorism? What messages is the film trying to send about this and to whom?

2. The title of the film Making Of refers both to the making of a terrorist and to the making of a film. In fact, the film has a “film within a film” structure that makes this double meaning evident. What is the function of this “film within a film?” What is the relationship between the film that is being made within the film and the film itself? What comments are made through this structure about films, about images, about the role both play in forming individuals and societies?

3. Terrorism is only one theme of the film. What are some of the other themes or messages of the film? How are they expressed within the film? What stylistic or narrative elements of the film strike you as novel, unusual, remarkable? How do these narrative or visual elements function to build, convey, or reinforce the themes of the film?

+Context

A look at the causes and effects of Islamic terrorism Contains direct and indirect references to terrorist attacks

as well as to military interventions in the Islamic world by non-Islamic states and entities

Made a few years prior to the Arab Spring revolution of 2011, the film contains direct and indirect critiques of the Tunisian government

Conveys directly and indirectly a climate of stagnation, repression, and censorship in Tunisia

Film meditates on Islam and its place in the modern world, but also on the role of film and media in the modern world

+Setting

+Setting

Tunisia 2006 City Working Class Neighborhood Homes Port (boundary between Tunisia and elsewhere / France) Cemetary Street Hammam Café Rooftops

+Contemporary Tunisia

+Imported Fundamentalism

+Restriction and Censorship

+National Identity Crisis

Film explores (through three paternal figures) the available roles for young Tunisian men

Sees Tunisia as negatively influenced by globalization, figured as economic stagnation, political interference and an imported radical fundamentalism

Europe is imagined as an escape, but is inaccessible Artistic expression is seen as an outlet, but it is

restricted and repressed (by police, by Islamic fundamentalism, and ultimately by film’s director)

+Search for Self (Expression)

+Crisis of Masculinity and Social Order Tunisia is depicted as governed (by force and subterfuge) by

competing patriarchal forces Young men have no direction, seek to express masculinity

through repression of women Police are omnipresent, controlling communication,

movement, expression Islamic fundamentalism is depicted as a seductive answer

to the lack of power, agency, direction experienced by young men

Film’s film within a film structure asks us to look beyond Tunisia as it is to seek alternatives that may not yet exist

+Peforming Roles

+Themes

Stagnation of Tunisian democracy Blocked Communication / Censorship Crisis of masculinity (in a failing state) Islamism as one form of globalization Place of Women in Modern, Arab World Relationship of film/art to life Search for spiritual meaning in contemporary world Relationship of Tunisia (Islamic World) to the West