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Immigration from one country to another is a complex psychosocial process which often has a lasting impact on the individual's identity and interpersonal relationships (Akhtar, 1999). On the positive side, it can mobilize hope and create opportunities for new ego freedoms. On the negative side, a radical environmental change can result in “disorienting anxieties” (Grinberg and Grinberg, 1989) and seelenschmerz (Freud, 1926, p. 171), that is, pain of the soul. The combination of such intense affects burdens the ego, leading to regression and regressive attempts at resolving the ambivalence created by such a situation. A protracted period of mourning and identity reformulation usually follows and is characterized by fluctuations between idealization and devaluation of the two countries, hope and nostalgia, isolation from the host culture and premature merger with it, and eventual alterations of value systems.
The poignant affects associated with immigration often mobilize creativity. Poetry especially lends itself to healing mental pain (Akhtar, 2000). Fiction, both in the form of novels and short stories, as well as painting and sculpture seeks to capture this elusive anguish as well. More powerful than any of these creative avenues, however, is the medium of cinema. The audiovisual panorama of interpersonal events and frequently the deep portrayal of the inner world of the protagonist has an unparalleled impact. The audience is not only entertained but acutely informed as a result. Watching movies offers them an opportunity for partial ego regression and identification with the subjective elements of a narrative. Knowledge thus gained is like the one derived from empathic immersion in a patient's experience. It is authentically felt and renders deep conviction.
To foster such empathic resonance with the experience of one particular group of immigrants, namely those from India (and, their “foreign-born”offspring), we conducted a search for movies related to the lives o