TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES
Jonas Carpignano |
© Haut et Court Distribution
Mediterranea
Jonas Carpignano
2015 - Italy / France / United States - 1h47
Screenings :
wednesday 24 - 10:00 am - Centre de congrès - Auditorium - followed by a debate with the film directors
friday 26 - 5:00 pm - Pathé - 2
Ayiva leaves Burkina Faso, crosses the Mediterranean and arrives in southern Italy. He is soon faced with the hostility of the local community and his new life proves difficult. But Ayiva is determined: his life here will be better, whatever the cost.
For director Jonas Carpignano, the question of the role of people of colour in Italian society is crucial. When the first race riots broke out in Rosarno in 2010, he went there to get a better understanding of the situation. His encounter with Koudous Seihon (who played the role of Ayiva) enabled him to enter into the world of immigrants, and this is what drove him to make Mediterranea.
“Through the close bonds that unite Carpignano with those he is depicting, Mediterranea appears to be neither a film about crossing the Mediterranean or fiction focusing on the riots in the small Calabrian town of Rosarno, one of the best-known cases of immigrant revolt in southern Italy. Rather, by showing us the journey of the protagonist Ayiva and his friend Abas, from Burkina Faso, through Algeria to Calabria, their difficult integration in this new area, and the final revolt in the riots, the film attempts to capture the central, key phase bringing together the two more “publicised” aspects of migration (the journey and revolt). In this sense we can see that Mediterranea is conceived by its auteur as being plural, as the challenge is to show the interaction of the protagonist with the different worlds he is crossing.”
(Nicolas Brarda, Critikat.com)
“Through the close bonds that unite Carpignano with those he is depicting, Mediterranea appears to be neither a film about crossing the Mediterranean or fiction focusing on the riots in the small Calabrian town of Rosarno, one of the best-known cases of immigrant revolt in southern Italy. Rather, by showing us the journey of the protagonist Ayiva and his friend Abas, from Burkina Faso, through Algeria to Calabria, their difficult integration in this new area, and the final revolt in the riots, the film attempts to capture the central, key phase bringing together the two more “publicised” aspects of migration (the journey and revolt). In this sense we can see that Mediterranea is conceived by its auteur as being plural, as the challenge is to show the interaction of the protagonist with the different worlds he is crossing.”
(Nicolas Brarda, Critikat.com)
CAST AND CREW
Cast : Koudous Seihon, Alassane Sy, Adam Gnegne, Mary Elizabeth Innocence, Pio Amato
Screenplay : Jonas Carpignano
Cinematography : Wyatt Garfield
Sound : Damien Tronchot
Editing : Sanabel Cherqaoui, Affonso Gonçalves, Nico Leunen
Music : Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin
Production : Audax Films, Court 13 Pictures, DCM Productions, End Cue
French distributor : Haut et Court
International sales : NDM Films