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Email this article Female African Refugees in Europe through the Cinematic Lens: Carnal Hospitality and the Longing for Touch in Aisha (2022) and Drift (2023)
Abstract
This paper analyses the representation of the female African refugee experience in Europe in two recent European cinematic productions: Frank Berry’s Aisha (2022) and Anthony Chen’s Drift (2023). The investigation suggests that, in the face of the complexity to reach out to the displaced Other because of psychological and physical trauma, a language of touch emerges to cross the self-Other threshold and open the door to the fragmented and vulnerable self. Mobilising a framework that foregrounds the role of the body in hospitable encounters, a longing for touch can be traced through the presence of a physical and symbolic hand.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2026.50.2.56-67
Date of publication: 2026-07-10 10:36:08
Date of submission: 2025-12-31 00:07:03
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