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Film Reviews

Many of these feature-length films can be found on www.imdb.com or www.amazon.com. Movies are arranged by year and then alphabetically by title. A special thanks to Sheela Murthy for compiling many of these films.

While some movies deal directly with immigration as a theme, others are slightly more nuanced yet still touch on the topic. If you know of an immigration-themed movie that is not on this list, please let us know.

The New Americans Series (PBS)

An award-winning documentary series that enjoyed enormous success on PBS, The New Americans follows four years in the lives of a group of contemporary immigrants as they journey to start new lives in America.

Year Released: 2004

Bailagua Fronteriza

The Tijuana River winds back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border.  Bailagua Fronteriza means, with poetic license, "Dance of the Border Waters." Filmmakers interviewed leaders, attended summits, visited sites, and worked hard to understand this region's environmental and social issues.

Year Released: 2003

Code 46

Michael Winterbottom film for science fiction aficionados, starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton.  The action takes place in a test-tube society in which the nation state no longer exists and in which world cultures have merged.  Still, border patrols still control the movement of people and draconian laws regulate personal relationships.

Year Released: 2003

Come Along With Me - Nuyog Kako

This story examines the physical, cultural, and emotional journey of Michael Eugenio, a nine-year-old Asian American boy, as he travels for the very first time with his family from California to The Philippines to visit his birthplace -a children's shelter from which he was adopted- to locate his birth parents. The film provides an intimate look at the rediscovery of personal cultural heritage and identity through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy.

Year Released: 2003

Dirty Pretty Things

Oscar-nominated for its screenplay by Steven Knight, this thriller tells of the gruesome underworld of organ smuggling in London. Directed by Steven Frears (My Beautiful Launderette 1985), the story centers around a Nigerian immigrant, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who drives a cab by day and works in a hotel by night and the young Turkish woman (Audrey Tautou) he befriends. Okwe becomes caught in the workings of the ghoulish organ market, in which desperate immigrants are forced to part with essential body parts for money.  Frears' Brilliant direction and casting make this film a must-see; Ejiofor is tremendous.

Year Released: 2003

Farmingville

In the current frigid national climate facing economic migrants, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini enter the traumatized world of Farmingville, a previously unassuming Long Island suburb that witnessed the beating and attempted murder of two Mexican day laborers.

Year Released: 2003

Flavors

Written and Directed by software professionals Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru, Flavors is not a big budget film neither by the standards of Hollywood or Bollywood. It was noticed by Variety, however, and that is saying something! The two also made Shaadi.com in 2001, in which each makes an appearance in front of the camera.

Year Released: 2003

Green Card Fever

From new director Bala Rajasekharuni, this is the story of a young immigrant from India (played by Vikram Dasu) who overstays his U.S. visa. Forced to decide who he can trust, he becomes emboldened when he learns that in America, if you want something, you sue somebody for it!

Year Released: 2003

House Of Sand And Fog

Nominated for three Academy Awards, this directorial debut for Vadim Perelman is a gripping drama in which Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, 1982) plays a proud Iranian ex-colonel living a lie.  He finds an opportunity to improve things for his family by purchasing a home being sold at auction. But the house's previous, evicted owner (played by Jennifer Connelly- A Beautiful Mind, 2001) has lost her home - the last shred of hope in her life - through a bureaucratic error, and she will not go down without a fight. House of Sand and Fog is a harrowing story of the American Dream spinning out of control. Shohreh Aghdashloo received a nomination for Best Supporting actress as the ex-colonel's wife.

Year Released: 2003

In America

Nominated for three Academy Awards, In America is the story of a modern-day Irish family who crosses the Canadian border to settle in New York City in search of their American dreams. While it may not be wealth and success that they find, there is a neighbor who gives them friendship and helps them to finally attain peace. Writer / director Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father, 1993, and My Left Foot, 1989) needed to look no further than his own childhood for inspiration for this film.

Year Released: 2003