«L'Etrangère» review: Gaya Jiji's refugee romance struggles to transcend its predictable exile narrative
By
Laura Tuillier
Summary
A review of Gaya Jiji's second feature film "L'Etrangère," which follows Selma, a Syrian refugee in Bordeaux fighting for legal papers while beginning a romance with a lawyer who agrees to help her. The review criticizes the film for being over-written, trapped in a predictable narrative about the pain of exile, with direction that remains in the background. The opening drowning sequence is described as shocking but fragmentary and never revisited.
Source
bsky«L'Etrangère» review: Gaya Jiji's refugee romance struggles to transcend its predictable exile narrativel.liberation.frKey quotes
· 3 pulledDès le début du film – une séquence choc mais parcellaire de début de noyade dans une mer indistincte, qui ne sera plus jamais évoquée – surgit la crainte du film sur-écrit
le long métrage de la cinéaste syrienne sur la romance entre une réfugiée et un avocat peine à dépasser son statut de film sur la douleur de l'exil
prisonnier d'un récit balisé où la mise en scène reste en retrait
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