Abstract

Migration is the topic of my essay “Home, Alienation and Transience in Stephen Frears’ “Dirty Pretty Things” (2002) and Fatih Akin’s “The Edge of Heaven” (2007). In this essay I show how class, gender, and immigrant status inform the alien experiences of the films’ lead characters. While emphasizing the lives of the “underdogs”–illegal immigrants in London who attempt to stay alive by doing the dirty work the British will not touch–I compare their exile experiences with those of the main characters in Akin’s film, in which Germans with and without migrant backgrounds criss-cross between Germany and Turkey. In my analysis of the characters’ inner and outer journeys I show how they confront and conquer barriers that lead to new beginnings. I am drawing from various theoretical sources, including Julia Kristeva’s work on the foreigner, Katarzyna Marciniak’s on alienhood, and Homi Bhabha’s on exile.