ABSTRACT
The chapter is focused on theoretical clarifications and definitions. The author holds that we should conceive of political cinema as a genre. The chapter introduces the main theoretical difficulties related to the definition of ‘genre’, but the author narrows down the research focus as his main aim is that of defining a very specific genre, that of political cinema. To define this genre, a more in-depth analysis of the concept of the political is required. The author draws from political theories to define what counts as ‘political’ and introduces the tripartite distinction between politics, policy and polity, which are used to map the concept of the political. The chapter provides an initial sketch of what constitutes political cinema. It will be clear that in order to classify political films we cannot rely on formal elements as interpretative efforts are required for accurate classification.
