Ominous Homelands in World Cinema examines contemporary films, produced in different national contexts, which disclose and interrogate ideas and images of “Homeland”— a concept which re-emerged in the US after 9/11, and has since travelled to Europe and other parts of the world.

By drawing on contemporary films from different national contexts, and relating these with emerging political discourses, this book explores some of the new meanings associated with notions of “Homeland” since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in the US in 2002. The analysis shows how notions and images of “Home/land” have come to absorb securitarian connotations in popular culture, not only linked to terrorism but progressively connected to a number of other global processes such as the so-called “refugee crisis,” the emergence of new geo-political powers, new wars and the rise of authoritarian leaders and nationalistic movements in different parts of the world.

This book will interest students and scholars not only in film studies, media studies and popular culture, but also in global security, contemporary history, American studies, and global cultural studies