Beur is Beautiful: Maghrebi-French Filmmaking

Producer

Film Program and Symposium, IFC; The French Institute, New York

November 2007

The term beur is French inversion-slang (verlan) for the word arabe, and refers to the French-born children of North African (Maghrebi) immigrants of Arab as well as Amazigh and Kabyle origin. For the most part, this generation grew up in the concrete wastelands of France’s low-income housing projects in the suburbs (banlieues). While beur has been part of the European lexicon for more than 20 years, the term and the culture it describes remain largely unknown in the United States.