Exposition : Une histoire du cinéma français - Héritages maghrébins

For over sixty years, French cinema has been transformed by the impetus of filmmakers and actors from Maghrebi immigration. Their works have introduced new narratives, new faces, and new forms, redefining the imaginaries of the seventh art. The exhibition Une histoire du cinéma français traces this history by highlighting those who have contributed to shaping and continue to shape French cinema.

Filmmakers, from pioneer Ali Ghanem to Mehdi Charef, Rachid Bouchareb, Hafsia Herzi or Lina Soualem, as well as actors Jamel Debbouze, Rachida Brakni, Roschdy Zem or Sami Bouajila, have contributed to shaping a unique cultural history. Their journeys, between France and the Maghreb, have helped to redefine, over generations, the imaginaries of French cinema. Their often pioneering films have paved the way for unprecedented narratives, blending the experience of exile, the quest for identity, and the renewal of cinematic forms. Rather than focusing on figures of immigration as they have been represented on screen, Une histoire du cinéma français chooses to highlight the artists who, since the 1960s, have written large parts of French cinema history without this history ever having been told. Through film excerpts, posters, on-set photographs, storyboards, iconic cinema objects such as Césars, and press archives, Une histoire du cinéma français offers a concrete and sensitive journey through this history. The exhibition brings into dialogue widely recognised works and others more rarely shown, sometimes restored or digitised for the occasion. The exhibition concludes with a sequence looking to the future: the irruption of genre cinema, the importance of women, formal freedom, the audacity of narratives, and the emergence of new voices circulating between the two shores. This exhibition is part of the Saison Méditerranée 2026.

Curatorship

Exhibition curatorship by Clémentine Deroudille, exhibition curator, author and director. Lucile Humbert Beldjoudi, audiovisual project manager at the Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, creator of the Horizons cinema residency. Accompanied by Chloé Dupont, exhibition manager at the Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration.

Scientific and artistic support Aurélie Cardin,