Fifty years of feminist thought have made the idea that women stay at home while men dominate
the streets seem outdated nevertheless Ceuterick argues that theoretical considerations of
gender space and power in film theory remain limited by binary models. Looking instead to
more fluid models of spatial relations inspired by Sara Ahmed Rosi Braidotti and Doreen
Massey this book discovers wilful affirmative and imaginative activations of gender on
screen. Through close micro-analysis of historic European Messidor (Alain Tanner 1979) and
contemporary world cinema: Vendredi Soir (Claire Denis 2002) Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour 2012)
and Head-On (Fatih Akin 2004) this book identifies affirmative aesthetics: light texture
rhythm movement and sound all of which that participate in a rewriting of bodies and spaces.
Ultimately Ceuterick argues affirmative aesthetics can challenge the gender categories and
power structures that have been thought to determine our habitation of cars homes and city
streets. Wilful women drive this book forward through their movement and stillness
imagination and desire performance and abjection.
