Language, silence and translation in E. Crialese’s polyglot migration film Nuovomondo – Golden Door

This essay aims to examine various aspects of Emanuele Crialese’s Nuovomondo – Golden Door (Italy-France, 2006), with particular attention given to the use of multiple languages (English, Italian and Sicilian dialect) in this migration film, and to their subtitle translation for the DVD version of the film. The language interplay in Nuovomondoraises a series of questions concerning the possibility – and impossibility – of translating culturally bound material from a polyglot multi-semiotic product into another language/culture. Assuming the transnational importance of this film as an epitome of cultural (un)translatability, this essay will scrutinize and enlarge on a series of questions relating to the role of language, silence and translation. The film represents a perfect example of how language played a crucial role in defining power relationships between migrants and Americans at the “(un)welcoming” harbor in the twentieth century. It also raises questions on how forms of inclusion, subversion and legitimation were articulated in a dominant culture – such as that of the US – in response to otherness, and on the role of translation also as an exercise of power and identity (re)negotiation.