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 19892020 in the context of the ongoing debate about European identity and its socio-political significance. It focuses on the films of some of Europes most prolific contemporary filmmakers, such as Michael Haneke, Claire Denis and Fatih Akin. It examines cinemas 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.
