Sunday, April 2, 4:00pm
Auditorium, UNC Charlotte Center City
Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Italy, 2016, 114 minutes
A documentary in Italian and English with English subtitles
Important parking information
Parking in the UNC Charlotte lots near the Center City building on weekends is only for cars with a regular parking permit for Center City and for faculty with a parking permit for the main campus. All other vehicles will be towed. Options for students and visitors: 1. Park on the streets in First Ward unless prohibited; 2. Park at 7th Street station; 3.There are a limited number of daily parking spots in Preferred Parking-owned lots nearby: Lot locations and daily fee rates.
Sponsors: UNCC Atkins Library, Honorary Consul of Italy to North Carolina, and UNC Charlotte Italian Club.
Introduced by Daniela Cunico Dal Pra, Lecturer of Italian, UNC Charlotte. Discussion will follow the screening.
Samuele is twelve and lives on an island in the Mediterranean, far away from the mainland. Like all boys of his age he does not always enjoy going to school. He would much rather climb the rocks by the shore, play with his slingshot or mooch about the port. But his home is not like other islands. For years, it has been the destination of men, women and children trying to make the crossing from Africa in boats that are far too small and decrepit. The island is Lampedusa which has become a metaphor for the flight of refugees to Europe, the hopes, hardship and fate of hundreds of thousands of emigrants. These people long for peace, freedom and happiness and yet so often only their dead bodies are pulled out of the water. Thus, every day the inhabitants of Lampedusa are bearing witness to the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our times.
Gianfranco Rosi’s observations of everyday life bring us closer to this place that is as real as it is symbolic, and to the emotional world of some of its inhabitants who are exposed to a permanent state of emergency. At the same time his film, which is commentary-free, describes how, even in the smallest of places, two worlds barely touch.
(Quoted from the official site of the Berlin Film Festival)
This documentary won the 66th Filmfestpiele Berlin Competition in 2016 and is one of the five Oscar finalists in the Documentary Category in 2017.
