Film Screening:

Lead-in to the Duke conference, "African Refugees and Migrants at Europe's Doorstep" (March 7-8, 2016)

Mediterranea

(Jonas Carpignano, 2015, 107 min, Italy/France/USA/Germany/Qatar, in English, French, Italian and Arabic w/ English subtitles, Color, Blu-Ray) 

-- Introduced by Prof. Charles Piot (AAAS/Cultural Anthrolology)

This remarkably timely, eye-opening film charts the death-defying struggle of African migrants as they risk everything to start a new life in Europe. Ayiva (first time actor Koudous Seihon in a revelatory performance) and Abas (Alassane Sy) are close friends from Burkina Faso determined to make it to Italy in order to find work and provide for their families back home. But even after surviving the harrowing journey-desert bandits, a treacherous sea voyage, arrest-nothing can prepare the two men for the hostility and violence that awaits them. A gripping tale of survival told with vivid realism, Mediterranea immerses viewers in the heart of a humanitarian crisis that for far too many is a lived reality.

-- Winner for Best Film and Best Actor at the Cairo International Film Festival (2015)!

"This is a story packed with the sort of heartbreak and worry that would be hard to sit through were it not for American director Jonas Carpignano's touching, tender narrative skill." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cost: Free and open to the public

Sponsors: The Africa Initiative, the Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI@Duke), the Department of African and African American Studies (AAAS), and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).