Towards a minor cinema: a Deleuzian reflection on Chahine’ s Alexandria Why? (1978) Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar * Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada In his description of modern political cinema, Gilles Deleuze touches rather briefly on Youssif Chahine’ s Alexandria Why? (1979) as he explains how it subscribes to minor cinema. He ascribes to Chahine’ s film the quality of a ‘compositional mode’, which Deleuze categorises as the third characteristic of minor cinema. The aim of this paper is, therefore, not only to elaborate on the Deleuzian view discussed in his book Cinema 2: The Time-Image (1985) but also to examine extensively how Chahine’ s film blurs or conforms to the other characteristics of minor cinema. The paper furthermore explores Deleuze’ s three descriptions of modern political cinema in relation to Deleuze and Guatarri’ s conceptual understanding of minor literature as explicated in their book Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (1975). Keywords: Deleuze; Chahine; Alexandria Why?; cinema; Egypt and minorities Chahine’ s 1978 film Alexandria Why? dramatises the Deleuzean understanding of minor literary or cinematic texts, in the sense that ‘to be minor is to take a major voice, and speak it in a way that expresses your preferred identity’ (Deleuze and Guatarri 1986, p. 52). This paper examines the Deleuzian argument of what constitutes minor cinema and explores moments where Chahine’ s film fits or blurs the three dividing lines that are emblematic of modern political cinema. Deleuze mentions Chahine for the first time as he explains that what defines modern political cinema is ‘fragmentation’ (Deleuze 1989, 220). Deleuze briefly describes ‘the compositional mode of Chahine in Arab cinema’ (220) and comments on Alexandria Why? (1978). As Deleuze mentions Chahine only in relation to the third characteristic of modern political cinema, this paper examines Chahine’ s Alexandria Why? in view of all the three characteristics that constitute the Deleuzian perspective. In their book, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (1986), Deleuze and Guattari venture to define what minor literature is as measured by three characteristics that are intricately woven in relation to Kafka’ s literary vision: ‘The three characteristics of minor literature are the deterritorialization *Email: abduljab@ualberta.ca © 2014 Taylor & Francis The Journal of North African Studies, 2015 Vol. 20, No. 2, 159–171, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2014.917583