Fire at Sea

The tiny Mediterranean island of Lampedusa—lying midway between Libya and Sicily—is the setting for Gianfranco Rosi's Oscar-nominated documentary, which contrasts the plight of desperate refugees from Africa (who are rescued from leaky boats and brought to island camps) with the quiet lives of local residents. Although Fire at Sea includes footage of Italian naval operations launched to save those clinging to sinking vessels, together with recollections from some refugees in the camps, much of the focus is on Samuele Puccilo, a 12-year-old boy who gets seasick on his father's fishing boat, and spends most of his time with his best friend, playing games involving slingshots and imaginary guns—seemingly untouched (like most of his elders) by the catastrophe occurring around him (a reflection of many for whom the refugee crisis seems remote). The film also spotlights another local: Dr. Pietro Bartolo, who has taken on the duty of treating not only his regular patients like Samuele, but the refugees as well. The photos that he shares with the filmmaker—one of a boy not much older than Samuele covered with burns—along with his sorrowful stories of the horrors he has witnessed bring home the reality of a disaster that the West has largely chosen to ignore. Still, there are rays of hope here, such as when the doctor shows a pregnant refugee a sonogram of her unborn twins. Doctor and patient have trouble communicating, but the information—and the film's larger message—is conveyed quite effectively. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)