The body of films, the products of beur, banlieue and Algerian filmmaking in France, constitute a challenging intervention to narratives of nation in contemporary French cinema. The reframing of difference in beur filmmaking has been dominated by the need to counter the stigmatisation of the beurs, and the banlieues, in dominant media discourses, including the cinema. Across a range of comedies and dramas, action films and auteur films, beur and black actors are able to embody characters who are not exoticised or demonised but whose interactions with France's white citizens are increasingly normalised. For filmmakers of Maghrebi descent, filmmaking is more than just a question of representation, it is also a way of negotiating their own position within French society. By establishing commonalities between beurs and others, the films clearly demonstrate the unacceptability of racist attitudes and behaviour.