Beyond the Nation State: ‘New Europe’ and Discourses of British Identity in Pawel Pawlikowski's Last Resort (2000)

Abstract

The collapse of the Communist regimes in 1989 and the 2004 and 2007 extensions of the European Union to include several Eastern European countries have suddenly changed the Iron Curtain coexistence of West and East into East/West literal encounters in Europe. It is these changes in population, pan-European encounters and a redefined notion of Europe, especially Britain's place in the ‘New Europe’, that are explored and examined in Last Resort (2000). Although the film avoids overt political engagement, its story of a Russian mail order bride, which is clearly a metaphor for the West/East relationship of power and privilege, should be read within the contemporary political debate on the changing nature of European identity and, more specifically, the place of British identity in the redefined social, economic and political situation of the ‘New Europe’.