Mediterranea

Jonas Carpignano's film dramatizes the desperate plight of African refugees who are trying to make their way across the Mediterranean to a new life—and hopefully greater opportunity—in Italy. A work of fiction set against actual events and shot in gritty neorealist style, Mediterranea focuses on two friends, Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), who travel from West Africa through the desert to the Libyan coast, where they embark for Europe in a dangerously overcrowded craft, only to have it capsize in a storm. Rescued at sea, the pair are deposited in Calabria, where they settle in a camp outside the town of Rosarno and become laborers in the region's citrus groves. Much of their story centers on trying to survive in the face of hostility from the local population while attempting to secure permanent residence status before their temporary work permits expire. Ultimately, the narrative places Ayiva and Abas in the midst of riots by mistreated African immigrants that actually occurred at Rosarno in 2010. Carpignano succeeds in creating a real sense of time and place, and he resists the temptation to turn the main characters into saintly figures, instead portraying them as flawed men whose desperation—and sense of dignity—can lead them to act in ways that prove detrimental to their ultimate aspirations. A tough, compelling portrait-in-microcosm of the ongoing European immigration crisis, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)