Out of Frame: A Data-Driven Analysis of the Representation of Migrant Elderly Care in European Cinema

Olena GEPPER

Abstract:

This article explores the striking absence of migrant caregivers in contemporary European cinema, despite their essential role in sustaining ageing societies. Drawing on the AGE-C dataset (Ageing and Gender in European Cinema), which catalogues over 6,000 films produced between 2014 and 2023, it investigates how care and ageing are represented across four major national film industries: Germany, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. The analysis reveals a persistent imbalance: ageing is visible, even aestheticised, while the labour that supports it, most often performed by migrant women, remains largely off-screen.
Combining digital-humanities methods with cultural theory, the article situates this absence within broader ideological frameworks that privilege autonomy and obscure interdependence. It draws on the work of Stuart Hall, Helma Lutz, Rhacel Parreñas, Joan Tronto, and Temenuga Trifonova to argue that cinematic non-representation functions as a mode of cultural exclusion. Through both quantitative data and close readings of selected films, the study shows how European cinema has traditionally denied the realities of care work, while a small but significant body of recent films begins to reframe care as a site of political and ethical visibility.

Keywords: European cinema; ageing; migrant caregivers; representation; care work; gender; transnational labour; cultural invisibility; digital humanities; AGE-C dataset; ethics of care; social inequality

DOI: 10.24193/ekphrasis.34.5

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