Gianfranco Rosi's Fire At The Sea is a poignant and profound portrait of Lampedusa, a small island located 150 miles south of Sicily. In the heart of the Mediterranean, Lampedusa has become ground zero of the European migrant crisis, witnessing hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees flooding their waters in hopes of making a better life in Europe. Portraying the culture, history, and day-to-day life of Lampedusa, Fire At The Sea offers an intricate examination of the islanders of this town, juxtaposing their lives with those of the migrants who struggle and risk life and death to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Perceptive and idaedal in its well-rounded portrait, Fire At The Sea is not a political film in the slightest, but a humanistic study of a region that is forever changed. Observing doctors, Italian coast guard, various migrants, and Samuele, a 12-year-old Islander boy, Rosi has created a truly breathtaking examination of humankind and the every changing landscape known as life. Stunningly photographed and poetically crafted, Rosi's film meshes beauty with misery, routinely juxtaposing the beautiful island setting with the human tragedy of the migrants, even documenting soul crushing radio transmissions between the Italian coast guard and the migrants at sea, pleading to be saved. Fire at The Sea's intimacy and vision are some of its strongest aspects, a film that at times becomes a meditative tone poem about the importance of empathy and the shared human experience. The sea serves as a intermediary, a reminder of our shared humanity, being a provider to both the islanders, who use it as their primary source of food, and the migrants, who view it as their potential savior from the torment of the African and Middle Eastern countries in which they flee. The environment itself is one which both Islanders and Migrants now inhabit, with the Islanders' main perspective being their adjustment to these changes. One of the people profiled is a doctor of the town, a man who struggles with sorrow and pain he now sees on a much more routine basis. The environment of this Island has become one of pain for the doctor who tries his best to help those he can, struggling emotionally with the trauma of seeing so much death. Samuele, the 12 year old Islander, is the central character of this documentary, a boy who spends most of the time exploring his environment in which he inhabits, learning about his home with his father and friends. He provides an important purpose for Rosi's film, being a symbol of the youthful exuberance, with his sense of wonder essentially creating a wall of ignorance as to the changing environment. This exuberance is an important reminder of our shared humanity, with the boy's overall demeanor not yet fractured by the harsh realities which can exist in the world around us. The images of this documentary will stay with you long after the end credits roll, as Gianfranco Rosi has created a powerful portrait of the European migrant crisis, with Fire At the Sea being a film that offers little answers outside of capturing the humanistic struggle and the overall importance of empathy towards our fellow man.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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