Reframing Accountability in Spanish Immigration Cinema: : Mediterranean Modernity and the Shortcomings of ‘NGO-Films’

This article analyzes three Spanish immigration films that narrate the journeys of undocumented African migrants seeking to reach the coasts of Europe: Querida Bamako (Omer Oke and Txarli Llorente 2007), 14 Kilómetros (Gerardo Olivares 2007), and Retorno a Hansala (Chus Gutiérrez 2008). I show how these films, while made with a humanitarian impulse to alleviate social anxieties and to undermine stereotypes about immigration, ultimately fall short in their ethical mission. They fail to account for the whole picture of the historical matrix of the Mediterranean and function as ‘NGO-films’ because they show similar achievements and limitations as nongovernmental organizations.