original title:
La libertà non deve morire in mare
directed by:
cast:
Giacomo Brignone
producer:
production:
distribution:
country:
Italy
year:
2017
film run:
77'
format:
colour
release date:
27/09/2018
festivals & awards:
People often talk about migration in terms of numbers: the statistical calculation of the dead and the survivors. Of those who did it and who did not. But behind this aseptic calculation there are the stories and the dreams of these immigrants, about what no newspaper in the world will ever talk deeply and properly. Nevertheless, people talk and write a lot about migration, on both newspapers and television.
We want to focus exaclty on the stories behind those frightened faces and streched-out arms of the pictures we see on the press or on the screen. We want to focus on the tears and the smiles, the hopes and the fears of these immigrants, instead of considering them as news items.
'La libertà non deve morire in mare' derives in a certain way from this idea, from the desire of giving voice to who has never, or hardly never, had it. With this docufilm we look for authentic faces and voices, without the fiction of movies.
'La libertà non deve morire in mare' has the same aim as a documentary, in the truest, realest and most authentic sense of the term. In front of the camera there are people who say what they want to. People who escaped from somebody or something and other people who – by chance, for Christian charity, because of their job or a political choice – have welcomed them. The stories you are going to listen to in this docufim are stories of real life. They do not underestimate the tragic side of the migration process, but, at the same time, they underline the importance of the hope which is growing in it.
The only element which escapes the realism of the camera is the narrator's voice, expression of a collective reflection on the topic.
However, 'La libertà non deve morire in mare', does not comment on the theme or feed the public and does not want to give a lesson. It wants to be a word among the many said and abused about migration. Not the last word, but maybe the truest one, as we like to think.
The concepts of truth and freedom should coincide. The freedom to migrate is above all the freedom to live. There is no war, form of racism, fear, or any other reasons for which these people have to die at sea.