Reflecting (on) identities: Melliti’s Io, l’altro and Crialese’s Terraferma

Abstract

In recent decades, Sicily has often featured in the headlines since it is the first landing place for those who cross the Mediterranean Sea, braving adversity to escape war, hunger and poverty in their home countries. Mohsen Melliti and Emanuele Crialese, in Io, l’altro (I, the Other) (2007) and Terraferma (2011) respectively, zoom in on the intrinsic duality of Sicilian identity as local inhabitants are forced to question the Other – ironically as outcasts themselves in their own country. They must observe this Other as if seeing their own images in a mirror, a magic device that reflects years of control, struggle, assimilation and reinvention. Using a psychoanalytic theoretical framework to interpret filmic choices, I illustrate how this is represented in the well-orchestrated development of events. Through a series of frames and succinct dialogues, Melliti and Crialese project the refractions of their protagonists on to the dark blue waters of the Mediterranean, underscoring the complex backgrounds of their stories and identities.