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The sea is burning

"If we don't change course, anti-xenophobic politics will cause Europe to collapse," said Gianfranco Rosi, filmmaker behind Film from the South's winning film, the Lampedusa documentary "The Sea Burns" (in cinema now). 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

"I dislike the term 'refugee crisis'. It puts things in perspective, and gives the impression that we are dealing with a sudden disaster, such as an earthquake, a tornado or a tsunami. But this has been going on for a long time – even though Europe has only now discovered that there are millions of people fleeing the world, "says Gianfranco Rosi.

The Italian documentary filmmaker visited Oslo with his latest film The sea is burning, which will be shown on Film from the South festival before it premieres in Norwegian cinemas on 14. October. In this film, which rarely enough for a documentary won the Golden Bear during this year's film festival in Berlin, Rosi and his observing camera depict life on the transit island of Lampedusa. Located near the coast of Africa, according to the film, 400 000 people have arrived on the Italian island in the last 20 years, and 15 000 has died on the way there.

"This is a tremendous tragedy. I am ashamed to live in Europe, where countries such as Austria, Hungary and Poland create blockades instead of participating in a quota system to accommodate these people. That's what Obama said: If you build a wall around you, you build a prison for yourself. If we do not change course, the anti-xenophobic policy will cause Europe to collapse. ”

Initially, Rosi got support from film director Luce Cinecittà to make a ten-minute short documentary, which would show a different side of Lampedusa than one usually sees through the news picture.

"When I came to the island, I realized that it was impossible to make such a short film about something so complicated, and had to expand the project. I ended up living there for a year and a half to get the islanders' perspective, "he tells Ny Tid.

"If I had only portrayed the migrants, the island would feel like an empty room. I also wanted to include the island's own identity, and had to change from a journalistic to a more narrative approach. "

Internal and external development. An important person in the film is the island doctor, who is in close contact with the many dead and injured who are picked up on the sea off Lampedusa. However, the film's most central character is a roughly ten-year-old boy who is not as directly linked to these tragic and dramatic events. Samuele dreams of becoming a hunter, but is expected to become a fisherman like his father and grandfather – a profession he may not be as well suited to.

"I immediately thought it would be a good idea to have a young boy as the main character, because it would give me more freedom to explore daily life on the island. A child cannot be expected to relate to the refugee situation and the policy surrounding it. As I filmed, however, I realized that his story has a strong inner development. Actually, this is a simple movie, one coming of age-history. But at the same time, his fear of facing life and all its uncertain elements is much of the same anxiety as when faced with a world you do not know. His story points beyond himself. "

How do you work with such metaphors in documentary, do you discover them along the way?

"Yes. But I am concerned with creating space for interpretation, in a world where so much information is available. Instead of presenting numbers and facts, I want to use a more poetic language, and create interaction between the audience and the images in the film, "says Rosi.

The sea is burning was recently selected as Italy's Oscar nominee in the category of best foreign language film, reportedly as the first documentary the country has nominated for this award.

Political. When asked about the climate for political films in his home country, Rosi answers that Italy is currently one of the countries in the world with the most interesting documentary filmmakers.

«There are two Italian films among the five nominees for the European Film Awards for best documentary – my film and Pietro Marcellos Beautiful and lost. This is fantastic, because we have hardly any documentary tradition. But the influence of neorealism is still noticeable, and is reflected in an urge to make use of reality. The most talented documentary filmmakers combine this with a cinematic expression, "he says.

“All my films are political. But they are political by extending beyond politics. "

For his previous film, Rosi was awarded another very prestigious award, the Golden Lion of Venice, which had never before been awarded a documentary. Sacro GRA was about the great ring road around Rome, through portraits of six different people living along it.

Would you say that Sacro GRA was also a political film? 

“All my films are political. But they are political by extending beyond politics. I always look for strong individual stories, which then become archetypes in the story. There are three million people living along this road, and I had to find six individuals who in a way told the story of them all. "

I The sea is burning Rosi depicts two rather separate worlds, with the islanders 'rather sleepy daily life in sharp contrast to the refugees' desperate and dangerous journey to Europe. The filmmaker says that he also had to approach the two in very different ways.

"One world required to be present in the moment, the other to be present over time. As mentioned, I spent a lot of time with the people to capture their stories as they developed. As for the migrants, I almost had to take on a war reporter role, where I had to capture things very immediately, "says the filmmaker, who both photographs and makes sound recordings himself.

“Working alone gives me some significant benefits. It makes it easier to create intimacy, in addition to allowing me to wait for the right moments. Had I had a crew, I would have had to film every day, and would not have been able to afford to stay that long. "

On the ocean. In the film's most dramatic scenes, Rosi has filmed from the lifeboats patrolling the coast around Lampedusa, and their contact and encounters with the crowded boats with refugees.

"It was difficult to get permission to film in the lifeboats. But when I first got it, no one asked what I filmed or asked to see any of the material. I was given complete freedom, and that was important to me. "

There is also a danger that you will be overexposed to such images through the media, that the spectator will be blasé or numb. Was this something you were aware of? 

"Absolutely. It was difficult for me to tell the migrants' stories, because I did not have the same access to them individually. Only once in the film, through a Nigerian's song, is it told about the journey he has made. This is an epic moment, where the whole tragic journey is summed up in three minutes and we are in a way witnessing something historical, "says the filmmaker.

"I am interested in looking behind the numbers, and wanted to show that these are people, not just statistics. Behind every number there is an individual, a human tragedy. In a way, the whole film slowly builds up to allow us to show the pictures towards the end, how many corpses are carried out of a boat. I wanted to portray these with dignity, so that one can mourn over them. At the same time, it becomes a picture of the tragedy that is currently unfolding. "

To what extent do you think films like this can help change the situation? 

"I just want to raise people's awareness with my film, and I have no illusions that it can change history. But if any of those who see the film ask what they themselves can do with this, then I have achieved what I wanted, "says Rosi, who emphasizes the importance of finding political solutions to the problems he portrays.

"In Libya, there are 300 people trying to escape from war, famine and other emergencies we have caused. The only thing we can do is create humanitarian bridges for these people. We are all responsible, and it is pure murder to let them cross the sea. We can no longer say that we are not aware of that. "

Aleksander Huser
Aleksander Huser
Huser is a regular film critic in Ny Tid.

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