Since the 1990s has increased the post modern thinking in Italy it’s influence which makes the repression of the other a point at issue, the ethical response on it has become a important theme in philosophy. This paper explores these issues through three contemporary italian films. Francesca Pirani’s L’appartamento (1997) serves as a point of departure for a closer examination of two more recent films, Marina Spada’s Come l’ombra (2006), and Carlo Mazzacurati’s La giusta distanza (2007). The Italy imagined in L’appartamento is one that stereotypes migrants. As a result Pirani’s narrative akses for to improve and humanize the two migrant protagonists, leaving the Italians in the film as negatively stereotyped representations of prevailing institutional hostilities. Spada and Mazzacurati’s works join a raft of films where migrants are an accepted part of the cinematic imaginary and where the migrant protagonist serves as a catalyst for the self-realization of the Italian protagonist. At the same time the constructed couplings within the films’ narratives appropriate tropes from Pirani’s film and offer the basis for reflection on the social and cultural anxieties engendered by migration and mobility in contemporary Italy.