“‘Maintain and protect the border’: Open Boundaries and Locked Spaces in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village

In M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, the definition of spaces and territories through borders and boundariescan be seen as a vast complex of symbols or allegories which reinforce notions that are recurrent throughout the film, such as the conservation of utopia (see Baccolini in this dossier) and the need to alienate strong passions from the utopian community (see Whitsitt in this dossier). When projected against the background of Patriot Act America and the media revival of the Clash of Civilizations, it also inevitably becomes a metaphor of how Otherness and potential threats can be dealt with through the creation of psychological and mythical divides (fears) between “us” and “the others.”