Border-Crossing and (Cinematic) Time Bombs

Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958) is considered a film noir classic that opens with a time bomb being planted in a car in a Mex- ican border town, before exploding when it’s crossing the border. In this article I propose to read a series of films under the “time bomb” suspense narrative device as a symbolic interpretation of the border crossing experience in the America’s and in Europe’s southern bor- der. The paper will address questions relating to the construction and reconstruction of borders, as well as the experience and representa- tion of physical, spiritual, imagined and symbolic borders, taking into account dialectical relations between culture, social relations and landscape, and the interplay of ideological constructions and material culture. Films discussed in my presentation include besides Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, Josep M. Forn’s La piel quemada, Sergio Arau’s A Day Without a Mexican, Andrea Segre’s Io sono Li, and Nacho G. Velil- la’s Perdiendo el norte.