Jonás Cuarón’s Desierto remaps the us-them binary by vacillating across Latinx migrant and white citizen viewpoints at the Mexico‐United States border. Liminal spaces in the film reorient nationalistic perspectives and xenophobic tensions revolving
around national belonging. Taking a transnational and intersubjective analytical approach to film studies, this essay investigates how the global era displaces migrant, citizen, and spectator alike. Cuarón’s intersubjective vision of the modern transnational world presents an
empathic way to perceive and experience cross-border disputes.