Beyond Borders: Films That Reveal the Human Side of Migration
Journeys across borders rarely follow a straight line. They unfold in fragments shaped by memory, separation, and the search for something more secure than the ground beneath your feet. The films in this collection move through those shifting realities, tracing lives defined by departure and arrival. Together, they shed light on a range of experiences - from the urgent realities faced by refugees fleeing crisis, to the uncertain paths of migrants in transit, to the quiet, often disorienting process of building a life as an immigrant in a new country. Some stories are deeply personal, others broader in scope, but all reflect lives shaped by movement and change.
With Who Is Dayani Cristal? joining Kino Film Collection this week, we’re highlighting stories of displacement and belonging, centering the human realities behind migration and the enduring search for home.
Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013)
The body of an unidentified immigrant is found in the Arizona Desert. In an attempt to retrace his path and discover his story, director Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal embed themselves among migrant travelers on their own mission to cross the border, providing rare insight into the human stories which are so often ignored in the immigration debate.
Identifying Features (2020)
Magdalena has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth in Fernanda Valadez’s lyrical award winning slow burning film.
Northern Lights (1978)
Cannes Camera d'Or winner "Northern Lights" is a powerful work of political cinema that dramatizes the formation of the populist Nonpartisan League in North Dakota in the mid-1910s. With a cast of non-actors, it captures the plight of immigrant Dakotan farmers as they toil and struggle against forces of industry and finance. Amid this tension, two young lovers find themselves swept up in the tide.
Green Border (2024)
Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland ("Europa Europa") brings her masterful filmmaking eye and deep compassion to this portrait of the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland – where refugees are lured by government propaganda promising easy passage to the European Union – and the migrants, border guards, and activists whose lives collide there.
Souleymane's Story (2025)
Racing through the streets of Paris and making food deliveries on his bicycle, Guinean immigrant Souleymane (Gotham Breakthrough Performer winner Abou Sangaré) is struggling to stay afloat. In two days, he has to report for an asylum application interview, where he must plead his case to an immigration officer who will determine his future in France.
Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020)
An African immigrant struggles to make a new life for himself in the big city in this audacious, neon-lit reinterpretation of Alfred Doblin’s 1929 novel. After surviving his perilous journey, Francis vows to be a good man, but he soon realizes how difficult it is to be righteous while undocumented in Germany—without papers, without a nationality, and without a work permit.
Fire at Sea (2016)
An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, "Fire at Sea" takes place in Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island and major entry point for refugees into Europe. Award-winning filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi masterfully juxtaposes these realities, providing a new understanding of the migrant crisis and the price of freedom.
Fatima (2015)
Winner of the 2016 Cesar Award for Best Picture and Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, "Fatima" offers an uplifting and moving portrait of the immigrant experience. To ensure the best future for her daughters, Fatima works odd hours as a cleaning woman. Frustrated by her interactions with them, she begins to write in Arabic thoughts she has never been able to express in French.
Eldorado (2018)
"Eldorado" is a documentary inspired by director Markus Imhoof’s childhood relationship with an Italian girl just after World War II. His Swiss family took her in briefly as a refugee, and through this personal story we see parallels with today's refugee crisis. With amazing access, Imhoof takes audiences through the Italian warships and asylum hearings which reject refugees at all levels.
The Old Oak (2023)
Ken Loach’s deeply moving final film explores loss, fear, and the difficulty of finding hope. When a group of Syrian refugees moves to a once thriving mining village in northern England, prejudice fuels a rift between the community and its newest inhabitants. But an unlikely friendship between the owner of the local pub and a young Syrian woman offers new possibilities for the divided village.