UC San Diego

Studying films that focus on migration to and within the European Union (EU) in our most recent era of globalization reveals a web of neocolonial relations that render geographical space both mobile and variable for migrant subjects and points to the problematics of disregarding spatial identities as significant determinants of migrants' subject positions. This Thesis examines four films: Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things (2006) in comparison to Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering (2008) and León de Aranoa's Princesas (2005) in comparison to Icíar Bollaín's Flores de Otro Mundo (1999). I argue that a comparative analysis of these film pairs reveals that in order to effectively and productively theorize contemporary migrant subjects within the EU, we must attend to various subjects' unique subject positions with regard to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship status, as well as to the dynamics of the geopolitical relations between the countries of emigration and immigration