Popular German Science Fiction Film and European Migration

Abstract

This chapter examines German-language science fiction cinema’s engagement with the migration debate. The topic of migration and the refugee crisis have not only been central to public and political debates, but they have also become an important narrative in popular culture discourses. This is also true for German SF films that shifted focus to the handling of migration flows and their consequences for the future. SF is well-suited to political commentary; by narrating the present as the past and envisioning its consequences for the future, the resulting scenarios have the capacity to reflect and often engage directly with specific aspects of current political discourses. Yet, despite these ambitions to insert themselves into the political debate, SF films navigate within a complex matrix of transnational film industry practices, commercial concerns, contradictory audience expectations, and tastes that have been shaped by global mainstream cinema. To appeal to these tastes, conventional narrative patterns and aesthetics often dominate. This chapter discusses three current SF films; the analysis pays special attention to questions of narrative perspective, spectator address, and the use of popular genre conventions to illuminate the filmmakers’ position within the political discourse.