A Feeling of Alienation

Many people experience alienation in one way or another. Many things can be "alien" and we can feel alien ourselves in certain situations. Alienation is a universal human experience, yet it is always experienced individually. When something does not seem to fit into a subjective or collective order, it is often described as "foreign".

As an experience that is both universal and personal, alienation is also explored in films. Alienation can become the driving force for characters, and it can become tangible for the audience through cinematic images. The protagonists of the films in this series are also confronted with feelings of alienation in one way or another, for instance when living in another country or living with people whose culture and language feel foreign. In WESTERN, for example, Valeska Grisebach describes the life of migrant workers in an unfamiliar environment, and in NO HARD FEELINGS Faraz Shariat depicts the recognition of alienation in one's own self-image. A subtle hint of alienation throws a regular life off track in Visar Morina's EXILE. But the feeling of foreignness can also become the starting point for an exploration of one's own identity, as in the only documentary in the series, BECOMING BLACK by Ines Johnson-Spain. Finally, Angela Schanelec's THE DREAMED PATH tells of the estrangement between two people who were once close to each other.