The Other Side of the Border: Mediterranean Series as Geopolitical Narratives

Abstract

This paper examines how contemporary Mediterranean-set television series function as geopolitical narratives that shape public understandings of the region’s evolving border regime. Drawing on critical geopolitics, media studies, and borderscape theory, the essay argues that television seriality plays a crucial role in reframing the Mediterranean from a connective sea to a contested frontier marked by migration, securitisation, and humanitarian spectacle. Through a comparative analysis of three Italian productions – Lampedusa – Dall’orizzonte in poi (2016), Inspector Montalbano: “The Other End of the Thread” (2019), and Unwanted (2023) – the study investigates how serial narratives construct spatial imaginaries, articulate tensions between touristic and border aesthetics, and negotiate issues of mobility, identity, and belonging. While each series adopts distinct aesthetic strategies, all foreground the Mediterranean as a dynamic borderscape where institutional practices, individual trajectories, and affective responses converge. The analysis demonstrates how these popular texts, addressed to broad publics, not only dramatize the lived experience of the border but also intervene in wider debates on migration governance, revealing television’s expanding role in the production of geopolitical knowledge.