ABSTRACT
The past twenty years have seen a dramatic upsurge worldwide in filmmaking that depicts the contemporary journeys of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers as well as the immediate aftermath of their passage to a new place. Of course, migration stories have often informed popular depictions of the Irish and Irish-produced movies: in recent years, we could point to In Uncle Robert's Footsteps (Myles Connell, 1993), Felicia's Journey (Atom Egoyan, 1999), I Could Read the Sky (Nicola Bruce, 1999), Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002), and In America (Jim Sheridan, 2002). Reaching back further, we find The Luck of Ginger Coffey (Irvin Kershner, 1964) and On a Paving Stone Mounted (Thaddeus O'Sullivan, 1978). Powerful newer additions to this body of films are the RTE documentary No Man's Land (Neasa ní Chianáin & David Rane, 2001), No More Blooms (Louis Lentin, 1997), and Zulu 9 (Alan Gilsenan, 2001), all of which, in considering inward migration to Ireland, have a lot in common with non-Irish-specific films such as El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983), Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá (María Elena Velasco, 1987), Las Cartas de Alou (Montxo Armendáriz, 1990), Brothers in Trouble (Udayan Prasad, 1995), Beautiful People (Jasmin Dizdar, 1999), Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002), Heremakono/Waiting for Happiness (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2002), Frontières (Mostefa Djadjam, 2002), and Rezervni Deli/Spare Parts (Damjan Kozole, 2003).
