‘Now I fight for belonging’: a cosmopolitan refugee meets regional Australia in Constance on the Edge
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Date
2017
Authors
Khorana, Sukhmani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Film and Screen Media, University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
This article addresses cosmopolitan cinema through the figure of a former refugee in an Australian-made documentary, Constance on the Edge (Belinda Mason, 2016). Beginning with an overview of cosmopolitanism as a project and a political ideal, as well as its relevance now, I then trace its manifestation in the discourses of refugee advocacy that have been evident in Australia over the last couple of decades. This helps set the stage for a close reading of the film, in which a Sudanese asylum seeker who has been resettled in a regional town with her family is struggling to find a sense of belonging in her new home. I argue that such an instance of cosmopolitan cinema facilitates the audience’s capacity to see both similarities and differences in the refugee other, thereby enabling a politics of solidarity that is simultaneously in dialogue with global and national discourses.
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Keywords
Cosmopolitan cinema , Refugee , Documentary , Belinda Mason , Cosmopolitanism , Political ideal , Refugee advocacy , Australia , Asylum seeker , Sudan , Solidarity
Citation
Khorana, S. (2017) ‘‘Now I fight for belonging’: a cosmopolitan refugee meets regional Australia in Constance on the Edge’, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 14, pp. 61–73. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.14.03