Find in Library

This article focuses on the synergy of bilingualism and silence, a thus far unexplored characteristic of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s film Illégal (2010). Illégal examines the path of a lawbreaker, an illegal immigrant, and her interaction with the authorities while in a detention center, a contemporary Repressive State Apparatus (RSA, Althusser). The analysis demonstrates that the modern-day contact zones do not have visible borders, but their Repressive State Apparatuses function as a mechanism of state power and a barrier against newcomers. The protagonist is not racially profiled and possesses a superior linguistic ability. Still, she is treated by the authorities with extreme harshness. From this perspective, the essay illustrates that it is not the language, nor the race, that triggers severe reaction of exclusion of the immigrants from their adopted countries of refuge. Rather, it is the otherness of the newcomers that the RSAs cannot accept.