It's worth starting with Ken Loach, a filmmaker with a humanistic perspective who manages to represent the impacts of major social issues on the everyday lives of ordinary individuals. The Old Oak is set in a decaying mining town in England, whose precarious economic situation makes it a destination for several Palestinian refugees. Tensions rise among the locals, who resent the presence of immigrants in what they called their home. However, the unexpected friendship between the kind bartender and a young refugee who speaks English offers hope for solidarity and community.
On the other hand, we have the documentary Human Flow by Ai Weiwei, which provides a broader perspective on the migrant and refugee crisis. It not only presents one of the largest human displacements since World War II but also discusses its implications and the needs – as a society and as human beings – to confront it.
Fuocoammare: Fire at Sea takes a much more specific approach to the migration crisis in Europe. The documentary is set on the coast of Sicily and contrasts the tranquil life in the Italian village with the daily turbulence at sea, where rafts with refugees constantly appear.
Flee is a documentary that, for reasons of anonymity but also artistic ones, resorts to animation to tell the story of "Amin," an Afghan refugee in Denmark who must come to with a traumatic past after being forced to leave his home due to war when he was a child. Given the expressive possibilities of animation, the film manages to represent not just the story from an objective point of view but also the entire subjectivity of emotions.
The Golden Dream focuses on the situation in Latin America, where precariousness has led millions of people – many of them unaccompanied children and young adults – to migrate and aspire to reach the United States via "La Bestia," a train that crosses Mexico from south to north. The film, shot on the actual route taken by migrants, follows a group of young people who decide to embark on the journey, unaware of the dangers they will face.