This debut feature from director Jonas Carpignano is often both harrowing and moving though this film festival favorite...falls short of some of the similar, and even more tragic, stories that can be heard just by turning on the news.
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Mediterranea
Overview
Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent. Ayiva adapts to life in Italy, but when tensions with the local community rise, things become increasingly dangerous. Determined to make his new situation work he attempts to weather the storm, but it has its costs.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
It's a slow-burn study in feeling powerless and unwelcome, anchored by Seihon's performance as a man patient and adept at sussing out and adapting to what others need until he just can't do it any longer.
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.
Offers a deliberately muted, finely textured account of the ordeals many Africans endure both before and after voyages to Europe in search of better lives.
Carpignano glosses over much of the sociopolitical context in his depictions of the chain of events.
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