This introductory chapter sets the stage for an exploration of nostalgia and displacement in contemporary European cinema. It traces how nostalgia has developed from its early understanding as homesickness to a broader cultural and political force, showing its dual capacity to sustain identity and belonging while also enabling distortion or retreat into imagined pasts. Drawing on theoretical debates around restorative and reflective nostalgia, the chapter highlights their relevance for contemporary Europe, where migration, nationalism, and cultural change continually reshape experiences of home and memory. Cinema is presented as a privileged medium for articulating these tensions, offering aesthetic forms through which longing, memory, and identity are negotiated. The chapter also outlines the case studies that structure the book—The Edge of Heaven (2007), Tabu (2012), Extinction (2018), Nostalgia (2022), and Limbo (2020)—each of which offers distinct perspectives on how nostalgia and displacement intertwine. By situating these films within broader cultural and political contexts, the introduction establishes the framework for the analyses that follow and clarifies the book’s central aim: to show how European cinema reflects and reimagines the complex relationships between past and present, home and exile.