by Roger CO on Wed 28th Apr 2021 Streamed proj @ home (Subtitled)

A slow burn

Summary

A strange film that observes but does not really engage with either of its subjects - and the two don't really meet.

Full review

A documentary using only natural sound, with no voiceover or interviews, and a languid visual style that is sometimes at odds with the subject matter.

Possibly it started out as a straightforward reflective observational documentary about life on Lampedusa focusing on the boy, Samuele, to explore the local culture - strongly tied to the sea, but then these external events intervened with boats full of distressed and dying refugees being plucked from the ocean and brought to the island for onward processing.

We see extraordinary detail of the work of the navy rescuers and glimpse some of the refugee experience, but it is a very narrow window e peer through - nothing about how they came to be there or where they are taken - and there is no contact between the boy and those passing through. 

The film never really resolves whether it is a documentary about life on Lampedusa, or a documentary about migrants attempting to reach a safe haven in Europe.

Having said that it was pretty compelling viewing.