PANEL DISCUSSION: Join us after the 18.00 screening on June 14 for a panel discussion chaired by broadcaster/journalist, Norah Casey, in conversation with journalists Razan Ibraheem and Ismail Einashe, and Calais activist Karen Moynihan, as part of the Migration Learning Lab conference (June 14th – 15th).

Tickets available now.

Lampedusa has become a flashpoint in the ongoing immigration crisis; roughly half way between Libya and Sicily, African migrants are drawn to the tiny island on their hazardous crossings to make first contact with mainland Europe. Gianfranco Rosi’s (Sacro Gra) portrait of the island, a deserved winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, takes an oblique approach to its subject, choosing to focus on the everyday lives of the islanders, especially 12-year-old Samuele, juxtaposing impressionistic observations of their lives with frequently harrowing scenes of coastguard search-and-rescue missions as grievously over-burdened migrant boats are apprehended. Samuele’s obliviousness to what is happening just beyond his limited horizon is telling. Employing a detached viewpoint, Rosi skillfully avoids didacticism, creating a portrait of a traditional community unwittingly tainted by the geopolitical realities of conflict and war. (Notes by David O’Mahony.)