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During the last three decades, Europe has undergone numerous periods of economic and political instability. The process of European integration, once hailed as a beacon of a peaceful co-operation between many, if not all, European nations appears to be stagnating, giving rise to notoriously more frequent manifestations of xenophobic violence, nationalism and right-wing fundamentalism. This book evaluates the portrayal of the migrant Other in selected examples of contemporary French and German cinema from the period 1989-2020 in the context of the ongoing debate about European identity and its socio-political significance. It focuses on the films of some of Europe's most prolific contemporary filmmakers, such as Michael Haneke, Claire Denis and Fatih Akin. It examines cinema's importance not only in reference to various theoretical evaluations of the concept of European identity, but also many notable events that have taken place in Europe in the last thirty years, such as the collapse of the 'Iron Curtain' in 1989, the historical expansion of the European Union in 2004, the migration 'crisis' of 2015, 'Brexit' and the war in Ukraine.
List of contents
Contents: Claire Denis's J'ai pas sommeil (1994): Debating Foreignness and Its European Implications - Multiple Identities - One Europe? Readings of Kutlug Ataman's Lola und Bilidikid (1999) and Faraz Shariat's Futur Drei (2020) - To Act or Not to Act? Unravelling the Political Aspect of the European in the Films of Michael Haneke and Fatih Akin - Europe's Problematic Margins: Claire Denis's 35 Rhums (2008) and Jacques Audiard's Dheepan (2015) - Rethinking Foreignness: In Search of Europe's New Others.
About the author
Kamil Jan Zapänik holds a PhD in French and German Film from the Department of European Cultures and Languages at Birkbeck, University of London. He has recently relocated to New York City, where he is working on a new research project focused on the representation of queer identities in contemporary film and television.
