Interface and erasure in Le Clézio’s ‘Mondo’ and Gatlif’s Mondo (1997): Problems of nterpretation and reception

The Algerian-born French filmmaker of Romani origin, Tony Gatlif and the Nobel prize-winning French author of Mauritian, French and British origins, J.-M. G. Le Clézio both draw attention to displaced individuals and groups that inhabit the margins of the postcolonial world. Gatlif has done this through films eflecting the history of Romani peoples. Le Clézio has always been devoted to cinema as a means of apprehending experience, yet his works have not been extensively translated to film media. Gatlif’s film Mondo, based on a story by Le Clézio, offers insight into the intersection of these two visions. The reception of both Gatlif’s militancy and Le Clézio’s commitment to writing about underrepresented individuals and communities remains as challenging and uncertain as the future, in Francophone and world cinema, of unclassifiable films like Mondo.