Lithuania – “Fuocoammare” to open Nepatogus Kinas film festival

The docufilm “Fuocoammare” (“Fire at Sea”), Italy’s candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, is about to land in Lithuania for a tour of the country. The film will be screened on October 13 in Vilnius at the opening night of the “Nepatogus kinas” Festival. A second screening is again scheduled at the city’s Multikino theatre on October 18. Two days later it will open in Kaunas. Finally, the Klaipedos Kulturos Fabrikas in Klaipeda will host an evening dedicated to the Italian docufilm on November 4. The initiative was organised in conjunction with the Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius. “Fire at Sea”, which won the Golden Bear as Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival, unfolds on the island of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost outpost. Since 1990, it has become the landing place of illegal migrants from Africa. In a little over 20 years, more than 20,000 people have lost their lives while crossing the Mediterranean in the attempt to reach what most people consider to be the gate to Europe, in their flight from war and hunger. Lampedusa is home to Samuele, a 12-year-old who lives on the island, where he attends school and goes hunting with his slingshot. He likes to play on land, although everything around him talks of the sea and of the men, women and children who attempt to cross it in order to reach his island.