Marie-Line

Mehdi Charef(2000)

France

Genre:

Language: French

This film is available as a DVD in the Project Library at Royal Holloway, University of London

Charef's fifth feature film, Marie-Line addresses the place of undocumented immigrant women in the French (and wider) economy through its portrayal of a multi-ethnic team of women night cleaners, working for a company (Euro-Nettoyage) run by members of the National Front.  Charef had previously focused on women's marginality and exclusion in Au pays des Juliet, a drama centring on three women prisoners on parole.  In La Fille de Keltoum, he subsequently addressed the question of the treatment of women in Algeria.  In this film he brings together a white working-class woman, Marie-Line (played by comic actress Muriel Robin, playing brilliantly against type), who is exploited by her boss and family, and a group of women of various ethnic origins (Maghrebi, sub-Saharan African, East European), some of whom are legal, others not, who are exploited because of their ethnic difference or precarious citizenship.  Whereas Marie-Line is initially indifferent or aggressive towards the workers she is in charge of, she gradually becomes involved in their lives, recognises what they have in common, and demonstrates her solidarity with them, even if it means breaking the law.  In the final scene, after being awarded a much coveted prize for best cleaning team, she provokes an exit of the management team by defiantly playing Arabic music over the loudspeaker.  The film thus provides an unusual representation of inter-ethnic working-class female solidarity; however it does so by privileging the role of the white woman and her change of consciousness. 

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