Fuocoammare

15 yrs 114 minutes • 2016 • 6.7

The Italian island of Lampedusa is located in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from North Africa's coast. Almost daily, news reports about migrants who risk their lives in the ocean surrounding the island. Gianfranco Rosi follows in this documentary the twelve-year-old Samuele who lives on the island. He does not like the sea and does not want to accompany his dad on the fishing boat. Rosi also meets the only doctor on the island, Bartolo, who sees all refugees passing, both alive and dead. "Where the headlines from the refugee disaster stop this poetic documentary starts. And it reaches under the skin like a breeze from the sea where thousands of people lose their lives on their journey to a better life in Europe," writes Jacob Åsell in Moviezine. Fire at sea won the Golden Bear in Berlin 2016.