Frames, Stereotypes and Authorial Politics. The Transits and Landings of Migrants in Italian Cinema

Migrants’ Journeys in Italian Films: Our Research Field This chapter aims to develop reflections on the role of cinema in the representation of migration. It starts from the main findings emerging from research on Italian audiovisual productions on this issue, in which more than a hundred works, both films and documentaries, were analysed. The present work will focus on a selected corpus of stories of journeys and landings, in the belief that media narrations of these two phases of the migration experience play a role of particular importance not only in the public and political debate over migrations but also in relation to identity processes in Italy and Europe. Migration in Italy is a highly debated issue that has been the subject of intense political discussions. The frequent turnover of governments, whether technical or political, over the past twenty years has proved the powerful impact of migration on electoral campaigns and political information, utilizing various channels such as broadcasting and digital media to disseminate the issue to the public and civil society (Greco 2019; Bentivegna et al. 2020). Political debates on the issue often take on an aggressive tone, serving to polarize public opinion. Right-wing and populist parties have turned migration into a defining element of their political platforms. Proposals for managing migration policies have helped to outline political parties’ identities and electoral communications. Even the work of nongovernmental or humanitarian organizations engaged in sea rescues has been the subject of polarizing narrative dynamics and frames. However, these organizations have attempted to delineate their specific narratives, sometimes in opposition with political actors (Abbas et al. 2019).