Mediterranea, a 2015 Italian film directed and written by Jonas Carpignano will be presented by Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg on Monday, April 18th, 7:00 PM in the Weitz Cinema. It was screened in the International Critics’ Week section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Starring Koudous Seihon and Alassane Sy as friends who cross the Mediterranean Sea to immigrate to Italy to provide for their families back home, the film depicts the Africans’ lives as migrant workers and their experiences of friendships and animosities, boredom and temptation. The film’s subject speaks to the very relevant issue of the refugee crisis abroad. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 3,770 migrants were reported to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015. Most died on the crossing from north Africa to Italy, and more than 800 died in the Aegean crossing from Turkey to Greece.
Recent media attention has focused on the waves of desperate migration from the Middle East, but the flights from Africa depicted in Mediterranea are no less perilous and dramatically charged, resulting in Mediterranean drownings and occasional racial strife, like the 2010 riots in Rosarno, Italy. Carpignano maintains a rare artful style that seems to prioritize pure observation over plot through documentary-style; in this way, he completely immerses the viewer into the center of the humanitarian crisis the film is based upon. The film maintains an unexpected power, poignancy and surprising moments of amusing relief and humanity through a tight focus on the main characters and their journey.