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Article Excerpt
Abstract
In 2002, Stephen Frears directed Dirty Pretty Things--one of the few mainstream fictional films to highlight the effects of exile, the complexities of refugee status, and the trials of migrant labour in the "Western" world. Thus far, the minimal number of "refugee" films produced is mirrored by the minimal discussion about those films (or their absence). This essay examines Frears's film with a critical lens that incorporates both theoretical evaluations and aesthetic choices. For instance: how do media representations of refugees and migrants relegate the signification of refugee-ism to visceral, silent, repetitiv, e and subordinated signifiers? Additionally, this essay narrows its interest upon Senay, the female lead of Dirty Pretty Things, to open up a dialogue about fragmented body: missing hands / hyperbolized eyes. Drawing on knowledge of the theoretical implications of those choices, this paper addresses refugees and illegal migrants in film with the hope of initiating conversation about an otherwise relatively silent and untouched cinematic subgenre.
Resume
En 2002, Stephen Frears realisa Dirty Pretty Things--un des rares films de fiction grand public a mettre en exergue les contrecoups de l'exil, les complexites liees au statut de refugie et les tribulations du travailleur immigre dans le monde "occidental". Jusqu'ici, le nombre infime & films realises sur le theme des "refugies" est reflete par le peu de debats sur ces films (ou sur leur absence). Cet essai examine le film de Frears avec un ceil critique qui integre aussi bien des evaluations theoriques que des considerations esthetiques. Par exemple : comment les representations des refugies et des immigrants dans les medias releguent-elles le sens du statut de refugie a des signifiants visceraux, muets, repetitifs et subordonnes? De plus, cet essai porte un interet particulier a Senay, l'actrice principale de Dirty Pretty Things, dans le but de lancer un debat sur la fragmentation du corps : les mains absentes/l'hyperbolique des yeux. S'appuyant sur la connaissance des significations theoriques de ces choix, cet article traite du theme des refugies et des migrants illegaux dans les films, dans l'espoir de declencher un debat sur un sous-genre cinematographique relativement confine au silence et tres peu aborde.
Doctor]: How come I've never seen you people before?
Okwe]: Because we are the people you do not see. We are the ones who drive your cabs. We clean your rooms. And suck your cocks.--Dirty Pretty Things (1)
In one of the most anxiety-filled moments of the film Dirty Pretty Things, Stephen Frears s primary character, Okwe, speaks out against the organized dehumanization of refugees (2) and migrants while he participates in the very trafficking that constructs this version of the London "underground." Dirty Pretty Things (2002), nominated for numerous industry awards, including an Oscar in the category of "Best Writing" for screenwriter Stephen Knight, (3) is one of few contemporary, non-documentary, mainstream feature films that addresses the after-effects of illegal immigration and the continuousness of refugee and migrant exploitation in the West (4) as its primary narrative plot. (5) With a filmography of relatively few works, refugee narratives lack the volume necessary to qualify as an obvious cinematic genre, and therefore are struggling to make the political impact that thinkers like Michael M. J. Fischer argue they are capable of. (6) Furthermore, and as a result, there is an absence of critical theory surrounding the limited number of films that exist that fittingly parallels the silence of the subjects themselves. Even Terrence Wright, one of the few theorists who have published on the topic of refugees and motion pictures, inadvertently draws attention to the lack of unique criticism granted to refugee and migrant fiction film. Situating refugee films within broader generic groups that homogenize the experiences of refugees and archetype the works in a manner that could potentially be disempowering, Wright is forced to look outside of the limited selection of filmic examples to determine generic qualities with which to connect the texts. Describing the goal of his introductory essay entitled "Refugees on Screen," Wright announces that his work "considers the ways that the refugee story has been structured in fiction film and proposes that feature film portrayals can conform to the "road movie" film genre." (7) By acknowledging refugee and migrant (8) labourer fiction film within the qualifying characteristics of another genre, Wright points to the lack of individualism, subjectivity, and voice of cinema featuring refugee narratives.
Allen Feldman takes a more visceral approach to examining representations of refugees and illegal migrants on screen:
Generalities of bodies--dead, wounded, starving, diseased, and homeless--are pressed against the television screen as mass articles. In their pervasive depersonalization, this anonymous corporeality functions as an allegory of the elephantine, 'archaic,' and violent histories of external and internal subalterns. (9)
What is clear from Allen Feldman's observations is that the refugee is overtly visualized in the media, reduced to her body in a visceral, sensationalized, and grotesque manner that is best described as Julia Kristeva's "abject." (10) Emphasizing the corporeality of media representations of the refugee and migrant labourer (in this case, in non-fiction) therefore illustrates the simultaneously trivialized and essentialized underminings of the political or psychological profundity of the migrant state--relegating her signification to the visual suffering of her isolated body. Prem Kuma Rajaram notes that "the refugee is lost. [...] Without citizenship her plight is not to be characterized as merely culturally or physically precarious, she is without help, without the means to call on the protective agency as state," (11) drawing attention to the refugee's political lack, while highlighting the necessity to evaluate refugee status beyond her physical experience. Thus, characters like Okwe, who identify with the refugee's desire for asylum, but who are politically invisible, are emblematic of the invisibility of refugees beyond their alien bodies. Yet further in his article, Rajaram poignantly recognizes that "refugees are consigned to their bod[ies]" (12)--an acknowledgement that suggests the futility of challenging media representations of illegal migrant bodies. Rather than disavowing the physical depiction of refugees and migrant bodies on screen, it instead becomes a crucial task to evaluate and deconstruct the mythological meanings behind these representations--highlighting the generated implications of those cinematic choices. Thus, this article will evaluate the visualized representation of the female migrant body as it appears in Frears's Dirty Pretty Things, examining how cinematography perpetuates the fragmentation and corporeality of the illegal alien body--and the latent inferences of those methods. For within Frears's narrative, the female migrant body is depicted not only by excessive focus on Senay's eyes but also by the absent representation of her hands through framing and camera angle. Alluding to specific qualities of migrant and refugee status, including melancholia, silence, mechanization, and liminality, this article will illustrate how the filmic depiction of Senay's eyes and hands metaphorically highlight the social, psychological, and political characteristics of her exile. (13)
Set within the paradoxical sceneries of panicked sweatshops and classy hotels, Frears's film highlights the sordid world of migrant labour in London. Okwe, a former...
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