ABSTRACT
Introduction Whereas in Australia it was a series of highly mediatised criminal trials that provided the main reference point for media, political and other public discourses, these were not a signifi cant feature of the French public discourses on ‘ les tournantes ’. Rather, the catalyst for the emergence of discourses on the so-called ‘ tournantes ’ was a fi lm released in 2000 entitled La Squale (‘The Tearaway’) . The fi lm was heralded for presenting the banlieue from a ‘female’ or ‘feminist’ point of view (Barthe 2000; Lalanne 2000) and, while it was not widely viewed, 1 it did receive critical acclaim (it was nominated for a César 2 ) and provoked intense media interest through its opening scene, which is a depiction of a gang rape. It was proclaimed that this fi lm had fi nally lifted the veil of silence on another form of violence commonplace in the banlieue 3 (Chambon 2001b).
