Filming at the Borders: Migrating to Europe Today - "Fire at Sea"

A tiny island no more than eight square miles in size, Lampedusa has long been a Mediterranean toehold for people on the move, from ancient Greek and Roman sailors until now, as African migrants take advantage of its position roughly halfway between Libya and Sicily to make their first contact with European soil. These refugees now number more than 150,000 a year, crossing illegally in crowded boats — a phenomenon seen often enough on European news, usually when things go tragically amiss. But what of those who call this isolated location home? In “Fire at Sea,” documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi turns hiseye on the locals, most notably a 12-year-old boy named Samuele, whose lives have been transformed both directly and indirectly by a migrant problem far too large for the minuscule community to handle, addressing the crisis in humanist terms via a delicate, decidedly noncommercial cine-poem.