Abstract: Contemporary aggressive actions in and around Europe have displaced millions and questions of collective and individual ethics resurface. Both comparative literature and European cinema consider issues of identity and relations of self and other. Conceiving of these as ethical practices, this article explores responses to moral dilemmas involving economically marginal characters and vulnerable immigrants in the Dardenne Brothers’ La Promesse and Kaurismäki’s Le Havre and discusses a fragile promise of ethical development.
