Abstract

This essay examines the representation of Linosa in Emanuele Crialese's "Terraferma" (2011) as a dialectic site that engages with competing ideas about sovereignty, stability, and mobility. The theoretical framework incorporates studies on tourism, migration, borders, and neocolonial practices of globalization, in order to show that Linosa's configuration as an island creates multiple conditions of liminality for the diverse actors that assemble here. Drawing on multiple conceptions of liminality, including my own analysis of the framing of film protagonists in «spaces on the margins», I assert that "Terraferma" ultimately succeeds in drawing unexpected parallels between the citizens of Linosa and clandestine migrants.