Over the past several decades, liberal western Europe’s attempts to improve human rights, social equality, and political democracy have increasingly conflicted with countervailing tendencies. The 2000s brought its own range of conflicts, including an upsurge in terrorism, economic downturn, and growing divisions over matters of ethnicity, religion, and history. During the 2010s, a new wave of refugees and immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa further split xenophobic, anti-Muslim nationalists from those who welcomed the non-European “Other”. And now, Europe is undergoing the unexpected shock of a virulent pandemic that has already spawned another round of economic devastation and socio-political unrest.

Studying contemporary western European film uncovers how the cinema can reflect on and contribute to discourses of conflict and survival in the new century. This edited collection uncovers the ways western Europe’s filmmakers have taken it upon themselves to represent and interrogate this new era of uncertainty, and to pose implicitly the broadly political question of “whither Europe?”. The chapters demonstrate a broad theoretical and methodological understanding of filmmakers as thinking citizen-artists who are directly involved in their society’s discussions of the past, the present, and the future. Far from merely “reflecting” their times, filmmakers have become activists who use their art to reflect on their times and to encourage their audiences to think critically about Europe’s problems and potentials.