Terraferma (2011) Within the Framework of Migration and the Migrant Phenomenon
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21996877 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mustafa Oğuz Yeğin (0000-0002-7912-8415, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir Üniversitesi, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 69-83 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2146-5193 • E-ISSN: 2146-5193 |
| Publisher | Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.7456/tojdac.1798075 |
| OpenAlex | W7117895927 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
Migration, beyond being a centuries-old act of displacement, is a comprehensive process with sociocultural and political dimensions. This study examines Emanuele Crialese's film Terraferma (2011) as a qualitative case study in the context of aesthetic and political representations of migration. Focusing on the encounters between islanders who make their living from tourism on the Italian island of Linosa and migrants arriving by sea from Africa, the film reflects the tension between the ethical imperative of aid and the state's security regime. The research explores various concepts in cinematic language, such as Agamben's "state of exception" and Derrida's "conditional/unconditional hospitality," along with their narrative counterparts. Cinematographic details such as how contrasts such as low and high angles, close-up, rhythm, and lighting frame the "criminalization of aid" are highlighted in the study. The reflections of Marx's "tactile epistemology" and the bodily memory effect of the sound-image texture, as well as the emotional ruptures and negotiation processes in Bhabha's "Third Space," in Terraferma distinguish the film from other migration films on a cinematic level. The film transcends a one-dimensional representation centered on victimhood, colliding within the same framework the discourse of touristic hospitality with the discourse of security. In this vein, the study attempts to offer a theoretical contribution to migration cinema, revisiting the problematic of belonging and subjectification surrounding the criminalization of aid through the aesthetic form of cinema
Criminalization · Narrative · Negotiation · Phenomenon · Politics · Sociocultural evolution · Tourism · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Political Theology and Sovereignty
The Skin of the Film
An Accented Cinema
Introduction to Documentary, Third Edition
State of Exception
The Laws of Migration
The Location of Culture
Liquid Modernity Revisited
Brutal Vision
Screening Strangers
Slow Cinema
The Logic of Practice
Theories of International Migration
A theory of migration
Video haptics and erotics
Concepts of transnational cinema
Cinema I
| Highly cited | No |
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