Films from a Virtual Geography of Third Cinema

Abstract

An integrative review of the concept of Third Cinema provides useful heuristic touchstones for this chapter. Third Cinema theory in its present form is not so much a demolition order against the input of the American and European film industries as it is a theoretical framework that seeks to give voice and visibility to socially resonant films that foreground the Third World experience. The sheer explicitness of a film’s depiction of Third World misery cannot be confounded with sociopolitical analysis, that is, a causal examination of the oppressive structures at work in the Third World situation. Essentially, this is the linchpin that distinguishes Third Cinema from other political films. The Iranian film Kandahar (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001), for instance, essays the grim scenario of mine-infested, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in riveting documentary realism but the film’s sociopolitical commentary is confined to the symptomatic. The more causal, historical issues such as the damaging impact of Cold War geopolitics on the region are left unexplored. The film then, though strongly political and decidedly Third Worldist, does not quite reflect the Third Cinema project.¹ This is not meant to devalue the importance of Kandahar or any other Third World film; Third Cinema is a targeted, incisive, and importantly analytical portrayal of the Third World situation but it is by no means the only valid measure of Third World cinematic representation.