Poetry and place in Gorbaciof (Gorbaciof, The Cashier Who Liked Gambling) (Incerti, 2010) and Io son...

<jats:p>This article analyses a new trend in the representation of Chinese immigrants by Italian filmmakers, namely dramas such as Stefano Incerti’s Gorbaciof (Gorbaciof, The Cashier Who Liked Gambling) (2010) and Andrea Segre’s Io sono Li (Shun Li and the Poet) (2011) that recount friendships between older men and younger Chinese women. These narratives are inscribed in a larger conversation about race, migration and economics. The protagonists’ differences appear to confirm Europe’s fascination with the exotic East; the power imbalance between a mature European man and a youthful Asian woman further problematizes these relationships. while recognizing the possibilities for an Orientalist critique and the challenges of cross-cultural representation, this article argues that the filmmakers’ aesthetic choices – and their privileging of silence over dialogue – literally and figuratively attempt to bridge the gap between native and foreign, Italian and Chinese.</jats:p>