The Stranger PG

The Stranger (1946) by Orson Welles is an American film noir set in an idyllic New England college town. It wouldn’t be an Orson Welles film if a darker plot didn’t gradually unfold here, however – with Welles himself miming the sinister key protagonist. Historian Dina Gusejnova will show that the film points us to a cardinal theme of twentieth-century political thought, the idea of restoring justice in a world out of joint. In this case, a local stranger is suspected of being nothing less than an enemy of humanity. But disconcertingly, just when everyone thought justice has been regained, in this sleepy New England town, time itself appears to have stopped.