Interrogating the Identity of Refugees

Abstract

Refugees around the world have been undergoing interviews, hearings, and court cases to determine their identities and rights to enter or reside in individual countries. In many instances this process is less than transparent as most countries seek to render the process invisible. Theatre and film, on the other hand, have opened a window on the process and allowed the public to view what has been kept hidden. In this paper I contrast different national approaches to the asylum process and consider specific case studies of theatre and film productions that represent and critique national judicial practices. Amongst others, I will consider the performance of Illegal Helpers in Potsdam (2016), Dear Home Office in London (2016), and the films Well-Founded Fear (2000) and L’Histoire de Souleymane (2024). Such works question the practices of assessing the credibility of asylum seekers, the accountability of those deciding such cases, and the possibilities of countervailing strategies for acceptance. They also illustrate how theatre and film have made more transparent, borne witness to, or undermined the asylum process, such as through what Žižek terms «subversive over-identification» or what Arns and Sasse call «subversive affirmation».