Fire at Sea

2DORCS15
Director:Gianfranco Rosi
Premiere:20. October 2016
Length:108 minutes
Genre:Document

Fire at Sea

Fuocoammare, r. Gianfranco Rosi, 2016, OV (ang., tal.) + ST (cz); Gianfranco Rosi, 2016, versions: OR,CS,

Director: Gianfranco Rosi • Scenario: Gianfranco Rosi, Carla Cattani • Camera: Gianfranco Rosi • Haircut: Jacopo Quadri

Lampedusa, an island covering a mere 20 square kilometres,

about 200 kilometres distant from mainland Italy, has of late become a buffer zone of the refugee crisis, a place where migrants have found a haven following their perilous passage from Africa across the Mediterranean to Europe. A placid fishing community, on the one hand; human despair, as well as the foolhardy hope for a better future, on the other. In his harrowing documentary, Gianfranco Rosi, who spent a whole year on Lampedusa with his camera, pays equal attention to the island’s two faces, with serene and poetic scenes alternating with the drama taking place on the sea. A master of cinematic insinuation and escalating tension, the director first indicates the glum events by a bewitching static shot of rotating radars, underlined by a distressed emergency call from a transmitter. Step by step, the film immerses into greater depth, revealing the refugee camp, where the survivors are brought; the decks of the salvage ships, where both the living and dead are taken; up to the eerie shot of the underdeck of a smugglers’ boat, with piles of human bodies.

Length: 108 min

Year: 2016
Local premiere date: 20. October 2016

Country of origin:

  • Italy
  • France

Language version:

OR - Original version
CS - Czech subtitles

Director: Gianfranco Rosi • Scenario: Gianfranco Rosi, Carla Cattani • Camera: Gianfranco Rosi • Haircut: Jacopo Quadri

Lampedusa, an island covering a mere 20 square kilometres,

about 200 kilometres distant from mainland Italy, has of late become a buffer zone of the refugee crisis, a place where migrants have found a haven following their perilous passage from Africa across the Mediterranean to Europe. A placid fishing community, on the one hand; human despair, as well as the foolhardy hope for a better future, on the other. In his harrowing documentary, Gianfranco Rosi, who spent a whole year on Lampedusa with his camera, pays equal attention to the island’s two faces, with serene and poetic scenes alternating with the drama taking place on the sea. A master of cinematic insinuation and escalating tension, the director first indicates the glum events by a bewitching static shot of rotating radars, underlined by a distressed emergency call from a transmitter. Step by step, the film immerses into greater depth, revealing the refugee camp, where the survivors are brought; the decks of the salvage ships, where both the living and dead are taken; up to the eerie shot of the underdeck of a smugglers’ boat, with piles of human bodies.

Year: 2016
Local premiere date: 20. October 2016

Country of origin:

  • Italy
  • France

Language version:

OR - Original version
CS - Czech subtitles