Refugee Cinema studies the representation of refugees and asylum seekers in cinema from the early 20th century through to the present. It examines a wide variety of material from around the world, from feature films and documentaries, through to newsreels, public information films, animations, experimental cinema and gallery installations. It analyzes the varied approaches used by filmmakers as they attempt to tell refugees' stories. Examining the 'fugitive aesthetics' of refugee cinema, it asks how these films convey the experience of forced displacement and how they might enable viewers to understand the circumstances that force people to flee their homes, leaving behind everything that is familiar. It also considers how successful such cinematic stories can be at revealing the diverse humanity that lies behind the reductive, stereotypical figure of the 'refugee' that dominates political and media discourse.

As well as films about refugees that document the experiences of displacement, journeying, detention, harassment, of social integration or marginalization, and returning home, Refugee Cinema also discusses documentaries made with refugees, a collaborative, participatory approach to filmmaking that potentially grants refugees greater agency over their own stories. Alongside these examples, the book examines a number of films made by refugees. This category of films offers quite different perspectives on refugee experience and brings into focus the principal question addressed by Refugee Cinema: to what extent can cinema represent the voices, experiences, and circumstances of refugees?