ABSTRACT
The relationship between Belgium and its immigrants tends to be framed as a set of intractable problems. On the one hand, immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb, and Turkey in particular are often viewed as fundamentally unassimilable, and perhaps unwilling to assimilate. On the other hand, the nation is considered to be among the most xenophobic in Europe today, and many Belgians seem to be resistant to immigration and multiculturalism. By one measure, Belgians were second most likely among Europeans to agree with the opinion expressed by Susan Mulcahy that immigrants are a threat to one’s way of life. Yet Belgium is very diverse, and the conception of Belgian identity is slippery. Belgianness involves a number of layered and latent complexities, stemming both from internal factors (the nation is a confederation of communities and language groups) and a significant history of post-WWII immigration. Belgian cinema has tended to embrace this diversity and produced films that probe into the complex nature of citizenship and belonging in Belgium, in the process diluting the distinction between insider and outsider.
This chapter will examine films that use families or couples in particular to problematise Belgian identity. The Invader/L’Envahisseur (2011, Provost) follows the itinerary of a migrant from Africa who insinuates himself into the household of a wealthy woman he meets, while 25 Degrees in Winter/25 degrès en hiver (2004, Vuillet) links the Spanish roots of its family of protagonists to the story of a female migrant from Ukraine. Black (2015, El-Larbi and Fallah), an explosive contemporary twist on the story of doomed young lovers, traces the separate initiations of a young Congolese immigrant and her Moroccan boyfriend into a brutal Brussels gang. Congorama (2006, Falardeau), a Canadian-Belgian-French co-production, declines Belgian identity by tracing a filial quest that leads to Quebec and into the nation’s dark, problematic, colonial past, while the comedy I’m Dead But I Have Friends/Je suis mort mais j’ai des amis (2015, Malandrin brothers) explores the diverse meanings of ‘family’ by following a Belgian punk rock band’s trip to North America. Together, these films paint a complicated and nuanced – if certainly not entirely rosy – portrait of Belgian identity and the place of immigrants and migrants within it.
