Disorienting “Western” Viewers with Nacer Khemir’s Desert Trilogy

Abstract

In this essay, I explore tensions that arise when creating alternative cinematic visions of Muslim life, specifically frictions emerging from the goal of shifting public perception of the community and patterns of self-orientalization. Here, I complicate assumptions about the representation of Islam by looking at a self-articulated presentation of Muslims through the narrative feature series the Desert Trilogy, by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir (born 1948). I argue that Khemir is ensnared by ahistorical Islamic nostalgia and largely reinforces romantic orientalist aesthetics in his films. While his portrait of Muslims is much more “positive” than those in the broader archive, it is just as skewed and incomplete as stereotypical images of Muslims as violent terrorists. Ultimately, it seems that he fails to offer a coherent and stable locus for Islam that can dispel misconceptions and mitigate the heavy liability of the “Hollywood Muslim” in Western social consciousness. Khemir’s desire to submit an alternative portrait of Muslims rooted in esoteric Sufi traditions of Islam in combination with his allegorical and anti-realist film style leaves the viewer with a synthetic and saccharine impression of Muslim experience.