Gifts of welcome: Precarity, intimacy and the gift in Die Farbe des Ozeans (Peren, 2011) and Welcome (Lioret, 2009). (1st January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stehle, Maria; Weber, Beverly
• Is Part Of: Northern lights. Volume 18(2020)
• Page Start: 69
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 2020-01-01
• Subjects: Motion pictures -- Periodicals; Television broadcasting -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; 791.4
• DOI: 10.1386/nl_00014_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1601-829X

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the role of Europe as gift in Lioret's Welcome (2009) and Peren's Die Farbe des Ozeans (2011) by focusing on gestures of welcome extended by white European characters to undocumented migrants. In both films, these gestures include gifts, in the form of money, shelter or skills taught, that play an important narrative role, but subordinate refugee characters' lives and stories to the emotional needs of white European 'givers'. In this way gifts of welcome become violent acts that reinforce European assumptions about European political and epistemological superiority, and paper over the existence of colonial and racist violence that continues to produce precarious lives.