‘I Am Not Here to Just Be En Vogue’: Talking About the Politics of Dislocated Filmmaking, the Clarity of the ‘Third Eye’ and Having a Place in Your Country’s Film Memory with Egyptian-British Director Khaled El Hagar

This chapter is inspired by the personal reflections and the professional trajectory of Egyptian-British filmmaker Khaled El Hagar. It explores the doubled positioning of diasporic filmmakers which allows them to develop a ‘third eye’, a ‘diasporic optic’. This multiplicity allows migrant filmmakers to inhabit, often uncomfortably, several cultures and identity spaces, and gives them a certain acuity, criticality and reflexivity. Simultaneous inclusion and exclusion are explored in this chapter in relation to El Hagar’s hybrid aesthetic, desire for universality and providing a distanced but at the same time informed and reasoned response to current political events. The analysis is contextualized by lingering colonial hierarchies still permeating British/European cinema. El Hagar’s extended filmography is provided.