Crossing Over Greta Galliani

Greta Galliani

5°I

28 Febbraio 2017

Crossing Over

Date: February 27, 2009

Director: Wayne Kramer
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd
Awards: /
Summary: The film tells different stories of illegal immigrants in America:
- A Mexican illegal immigrated woman is found and deported. The ICE agent who found
her takes care of her son and tries to find her.
- A 15-year-old girl from Bangladesh is arrested because she is accused of supporting
the 9/11 hijackers. Her family is illegally in the USA. She has to leave the country but
her siblings are born in America and so the family is split apart.
- Claire Shepard is an Australian girl trying to obtain a green card. She promises sex to
an immigration examiner in order to obtain her card, but she is discovered and has to
leave the country, while the immigration examiner is imprisoned.
- Zahra is a girl born in the USA from an Iranian family. Her family disapproves her and
her relationship with a married man and his brother accidentally kills her and the man
while trying to scare them.
- A South Korean teenager robs a store together with his gang. An agent (Zahra’s
brother in the previous story) kills his companions but lets him free, moved to pity by
the fact that he is about to be naturalized.
- Gavin is an atheist Jew from the UK. He pretends to be a religious Jew in order to get
a job at a Jewish school. He has to show that he knows a Jewish pray in the presence
of a rabbi to obtain his immigration documents. He invents the pray but the rabbi ap-
proves him, and invite him to join his temple.
- The wife of the immigration officer in Claire’s story adopts a girl from Nigeria
Setting:
Years: Nowadays
Geographical area: The USA
Crossing Over Greta Galliani

Historical background: Immigration has been a costano source go economic vitality and
demographic dynamism through the story of the USA. Immigrants are taxpayers, entre-
preneurs, job creators and consumers. Immigrants made up 13 percent of the total US
population.Most of them are from Europe, Mexico, China, India and Philippines. The un-
documented population is a serious problem: in 2012, there were about 11.7 million un-
documented immigrants resided in the US (mostly from Mexico). The majority of them
live in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois and New Jersey. Hundreds of thou-
sands of undocumented immigrants could qualify for a green card by virtue of having a
relative who is a U.S. citizen, but—because of bars to re-entering the United States that
were put in place in 1996—most would have to leave the United States for a period of at
least 10 years before becoming eligible to reunite with their families.
Reference to actual events: The film refers to the problem of illegal immigration in the
USA
Description of two important characters: Claire is from Australia. She is an illegal immi-
grate in the USA. She wants desperately to succeed in her career (She wants to be an
actress) and she accepts to risk a lot in order to obtain a green card: first she falsifies
the documents and then she accepts to have sex with an immigration examiner. At the
end, she is discovered and taken back to Australia.
Zahra was born in the Usa, but her family is from Iran. She wants to be independent and
make some decisions which her family does not approve, like having a relationship with
a married man. She fells excluded from her family, which does not invite her at their par-
ty. At the end she will be accidentally assassinated by her brother.
Main symbol used in the film: The green card is the symbol of acceptance and success.
Message of the film: The film underlines the difficulties experienced by people from vari-
ous countries staying in the USA illegally
Webliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_Over_(film) ; https://www.rotten-
tomatoes.com/m/crossing_over/ ; https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/
reports/2014/10/23/59040/the-facts-on-immigration-today-3/