Together with @JamesRDennison, we invited colleagues at the @EUI_EU to nominate migration-related films for a series of screenings entitled 'Crossing Borders'.
A thread 🧵 on the 24 titles we collected. Hopefully a useful resource for those interested in #movies and #migration.
"Flee" by Jonas Poher Rasmussen (2022 🇩🇰): a documentary made with a blend of animation and archive footage telling the tale of a gay Afghan survivor.
"Capernaum" by Nadine Labaki (2018 🇱🇧): a poor young boy who does not have a birth certificate takes civil action against his parents. When asked by the judge why he wants to sue his parents, Zain answers "Because I was born".
"Sin Nombre" by Cary Joji Fukunaga (2009 🇲🇽): the story of a teenager who embarks on a dangerous journey from Honduras to the United States.
"Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" by Werner Fassbinder (1974 🇩🇪): one night, a German cleaning lady goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic.
"Stroszek" by Werner Herzog (1977 🇩🇪): a hapless busker in Berlin falls for a prostitute who's in trouble with local thugs. With nothing to lose, the couple moves to the US. When the customs confiscate his cherished pet bird, Stroszek begins a downward spiral into culture shock.
"The Suspended Step of the Stork" by Theo Angelopoulos (1991 🇬🇷). A reporter stuck in a border town with an overcrowding of refugees sees a man he believes to be a long lost politician
"Border" by Ali Abbasi (2018 🇸🇪). Customs officer Tina is known for her extraordinary sense of smell. But when Vore, a suspicious-looking man, walks past her, her abilities are challenged for the first time ever.
"Bhaji on the Beach" by Gurinder Chadha (1993 🇬🇧). A community group of British women (mostly Punjabis of various faiths) of different generations, take a group day out to the Blackpool Illuminations. The tensions of the generation gap torn between tradition and modernism.
"The Namesake" by Mira Nair (2006 🇺🇸). The movie depicts the struggles of two first-generation immigrants from the East Indian state of West Bengal to the United States, and their American-born children.
"Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi (2007 🇫🇷). An adult animated biographical drama film following a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and moves to France with her family.
"Deephan" by Jacques Audiard (2015 🇫🇷). Three Tamil refugees flee the civil war-ravaged Sri Lanka and come to France, in the hope of reconstructing their lives. Their new home turns out to be another conflict zone with shootouts between rival drug gangs.
"The Swissmakers" by Rolf Lyssy (1978 🇨🇭). Two Swiss immigration officers assess several applications by curious and eccentric immigrants, including a couple of conformist German physicians, a pretty Eastern European dancer, and a particularly troublesome Italian family.
"Strangers in Paradise" by Guido Hendrikx (2016 🇳🇱). A man receives three groups of migrants, each time adopting a different attitude: dismissive, full of empathy, and conflicted.
"The Citizen" by Roland Vranik (2016 🇭🇺). A man in his late fifties has been living as a refugee in Hungary for years. He works as a security guard in Budapest and his main desire is to acquire Hungarian citizenship, but he keeps failing the exams.
"In This World" by Michael Winterbottom (2002 🇬🇧). The docufilm follows two Afghan children as they leave a refugee camp in Pakistan for London.
"Mandaby" by Ousmane Sembène (1969 🇸🇳). An unemployed Senegalese Muslim in Dakar receives a money order from Paris worth 25,000 francs, but he must go through several levels of bureaucracy to try to actually get the money.
"Joy" by Sudabeh Mortezai (2018 🇦🇹). Close to paying off her debt, a Nigerian sex worker in Austria helps a reluctant novice and contemplates the risks in taking another path to freedom.
"Fuocoammare" by Gianfranco Rosi (2016 🇮🇹). A documentary shot on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa setting dangerous Mediterranean crossings against the background of the ordinary life of the islanders.
"Rocco e i suoi Fratelli" by Luchino Visconi (2017 🇮🇹). A widow moves to Milano with her 4 sons. There, one of her son, Simone, starts an affair with Nadia, a prostitute. A feud ensues, when the other son, Rocco, also begins a relationship with Nadia.
"Heartbound" by Janus Metz and Sine Plambech (2018 🇩🇰). Twenty years ago, Niels went to Thailand as a tourist and fell in love with Sommai. They return to Denmark and Sommai has since brought compatriots to with her to play matchmaker.
"The Milky Way" by Luigi D'Alife (2020 🇮🇹). A movie about the migration routes from Italy to France, passing through the snowy Alps, between sky trails and tourism.
"Welcome" by Philippe Lioret (2009 🇫🇷). Bilal comes to France and plans to meet his girlfriend, who stays in England. Simon, a French man, agrees to teach him swimming so that he can cross the English Channel.
"L'ordine delle cose" by Andrea Segre (2017 🇮🇹). A policeman working for a European task force meets a Somali woman fleeing her country.
"Half moon" by Bahman Ghobadi (2006 🇮🇷). Years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Kurdish singer Mamo lives in Iran but decides to return to Iran for a concert. He calls his children to accompany him and serve as back-up musicians and they begin an arduous journey in an old bus.
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