The movie “Visitor” is a heartwarming melodrama about what real friendship and reinventing one’s purpose in life is all about. Walter Wale, an economics professor at Connecticut College, travels to New York to attend a conference on globalization. Ever since his wife died, Walter has lost interest in life; he did not want to go to New York either, but he had to replace a colleague at the last minute (IMDb, n.d.). Walter Wale’s life changes abruptly when he discovers a pair of illegal immigrants – the Syrian Tarek and Zainab from Senegal in his New York apartment. They have nowhere to go, and Walter allows them to stay until they find a suitable place to live (IMDb, n.d.). From this point, the fascinating and instructive story presented in the film begins. This paper will discuss questions related to the perception of the film’s plot.
The problem of diversity presented in the film is the first thing that draws our attention. It is presented by Tarek and Zainab, refugees from Senegal who live in Walter’s apartment. The main issue is the difficulty of communication between them and the main character, precisely because of cultural differences. The meeting of Tarek and Zainab for the protagonist involves getting to know people utterly different from himself (IMDb, n.d.). For him, the possibility of settling in a stranger’s apartment while being a refugee from his own country seems unrealistic. The protagonist must choose between feelings of strangeness, incomprehension, and compassion. All communication between these three characters is built on mutual knowledge, revealing the main diversity problem – the difference in worldviews. The film also showed Walter’s white male privilege. It was presented in the plot section when Tarek was stopped on the subway and arrested. Walter had the privilege because he was the one who could keep his new friend from being deported from the country.
At the beginning of the film, Walter is upset and mourning his late wife. He looks like a man who has become indifferent to all the joys the world has to offer. Nevertheless, Tarek and Zainab manage to awaken the humanist in Walter and revive his desire to live again. This happened gradually, mainly through immersion in a new environment for Walter. For example, Tarek taught him to play the folk instrument of his homeland (IMDb, n.d.). A young man skilled in the African drum melts Walter’s aloofness with his enthusiasm. He soon begins to learn the instrument from Tarek. It was moments like these that made up Walter’s inclusion and humanization. Because The Visitor is a film about relationships in the context of cultural diversity, each character brought a different experience to those relationships. Walter brought restraint and pragmatism; as an economics professor, he is used to a reserved tone and rationalization.
Syrian Tarek brought openness and lightness to the relationship. He became exactly the kind of character who positively energized the whole company (IMDb, n.d.). Zainab’s character represented a test of relationship strength. Her skepticism and suspicion were meant to be a lesson in trust for all members of the company. I believe that Zainab expresses distrust and arrogance because of inner fear. External mistrust is usually accompanied by extreme anxiety inside, which can be seen in the example of the heroine. She is afraid that her and Terek’s new acquaintance will threaten them in some way or might do them any kind of harm. He is a white male of conservative views, so one can expect anything from him (IMDb, n.d.). That is why Zainab chose the strategy of arrogant behavior as a way to protect herself. I believe Walter’s experience will influence the way he writes and delivers in the future. The fact is that he had previously only in theory encountered the injustices of his country’s immigration system. What refugees have to go through reveals a much broader layer of problems concerning racial and ethnic discrimination.
Confronted face to face, Walter has changed his views on interethnic relations and bureaucracy within his country. This change of perspective could not but affect the content of his teaching and writing. As for the film’s ending, it is about finding inner harmony. Walter comes to realize that he is essential in this world, that he can help someone unselfishly, that his life is not meaningless (IMDb, n.d.). In the end, he finds pure and unselfish love. He gets people who can just tell him how great he is, who can help Walter find himself. This is a movie about real life, making one think about life’s most essential values and helping one find himself (IMDb, n.d.). It is an example of what happens when the question of human destiny is approached by the usual managerial system, devoid of feeling and the ability to understand the individual human life. In its conclusion, the film speaks of how kindness is weak in the face of the arbitrary cruelty of life within a bureaucratic system.
Reference
IMDB. (n.d.). Ein Sommer in New York – The Visitor. IMDB. Web.