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World Cinemas

Module description

This is a module that introduces you to some of the key debates, themes and films of ‘world cinema’. We will ask why and how these films interrogate some of the key global issues of our time: post-colonialism, political unrest and rising authoritarianism, global financial precarity, climate change, and identity politics. We will also interrogate the essentialising categories of ‘national’ and ‘world’ cinemas, exploring how films negotiate these framings.

Module aims - intentions of the module

On this module you will study world cinemas from 1960 to the present day. A wide range of films from film-producing countries and regions will be examined, including from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Arctic, Europe and the Middle East. A wide range of film modes and genres will be examined, from fiction to documentary film, as well as thrillers, romance, comedies, dramas, ‘blockbuster’ film and ‘art’ cinema. You will analyse how these film-producing countries and regions interrogate some of the key global issues of our time, destabilising Eurocentric approaches to geopolitics and culture. You will also explore how film cultures from around the world problematise the essentialising categories of ‘national cinema’ and ‘world cinema’.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Appreciate of the critical debates around World cinemas
• 2. Analyse film texts using appropriate formal and critical terminologies
• 3. Connect at an advanced level the formal analysis of film to the broader conceptual questions raised by the module

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate autonomous skills in the research and evaluation of relevant critical and historical materials for the study of film
• 5. Understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and apply these ideas to films
• 6. Analyse films of different origins at a sophisticated and intellectually mature level

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate research and bibliographic skills, an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and to write clear and correct prose
• 8. Demonstrate an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to question assumptions, to distinguish between fact and opinion, and to critically reflect on your own learning process
• 9. Demonstrate independence of thought and confidence in developing ideas and formulating questions
• 10. Demonstrate an advanced and intellectually mature ability to reflect upon and strengthen your work

Syllabus plan

The module surveys world cinemas from c.1960 to the present day. It takes a topic-based approach, first exploring the precarities represented in cinema; second examining how cinema negotiates possibilities, and the importance of understanding diverse positions; and lastly through considering cinema as a mirror to the world. It looks at major trends, exemplary films, and the industrial, creative, and cultural contexts that shape them.  

All films selected for study will be subtitled in English. 

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – If you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – If you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative Reading List:

• Alvaray, L. et.al. (2018) Global Cinema Networks. Edited by E. Gorfinkel and T. Williams. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Ezra, E.R. and Rowden, T. (2006) Transnational cinema: the film reader. London: Routledge.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages
• Stam, R. (2023) Indigeneity and the Decolonizing Gaze: Transnational Imaginaries, Media Aesthetics, and Social Thought. 1st edn. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350282391
• Druxes, H., Mihailovic, A. and Simpson, P. (2023) Screening Solidarity: Neoliberalism and Transnational Cinemas. 1st edn. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. Available at: https://doi.org/105040/97876510421 
• Durovicova, N. and Newman, K. (2010) World cinemas, transnational perspectives. New York: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203882795 
• Shohat, E. and Stam, R. (2014) Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. Second edition. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Group. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315002873

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Indicative list of Films:

• 24 City (2008), China
• Chess Players (1977), India
• Leviathan (2014), Russia
• Mapantsula (1987), South Africa
• My Favourite Cake (2023), Iran
• Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), Thailand
• Okja (2017), South Korea/US
• Smoke Signals (1989), US
• Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat (2024), Belgium/Congo/US
• The Chambermaid (2019), Mexico
• The Stroll (2019), US
• Timbuktu (2014), Mauritiana and France

Key words search

World Cinemas, Transnational Cinemas, Hybridities