TERRAFERMA directed by Emanuele Crialese (Italy, 2011)
The week-long Piazze di Cinema at Cesena did not have a specific theme but each of the five movies I saw in an open air setting can be connected by the way individuals are pitched against inflexible pillars of authority.
In each case, the police and legal bodies are shown to be guilty of a narrow-minded and unenlightened attitude towards those who find themselves in need of support and understanding.
In Terraferma, set on an island of Sicily, the local community have to face the fact that the fishing industry can no longer be relied upon as a reliable source of income. The younger generation look to tourism as a new business opportunity.
But other visitors in the form of illegal immigrants pose another challenge to the traditional way of life. Boatloads of Africans risk their lives as they flee their own countries.
The old men of the sea are told by officials that they must not help these people in any way but are unable to simply stand by and watch as a desperate group, including a heavily pregnant woman, swim towards their boat seeking help. Instead of letting them drown they take them on board and then refuse to hand them in to the autrhorities.
What happens to the healthy young men of no interest to the scriptwriter; the focus here is on the woman who gives birth almost immediately when on dry land. She is a symbol of hope for a new life as well as being a challenge to the old life of the Sicilians.
Donatella Finocchiaro plays a widow whose hard-hearted response to the African mother softens as she realises that her plight demands the application of a common humanity.
The old and the young generations also find their prejudices tested when faced with practical choices involving real people. It is easy to set down stock policies towards the challenges that illegal immigration poses and this atmospheric film does not offer any magic solution to the problem.
It merely highlights that this is not an issue that can be adequately resolved by faceless bureaucrats and heavy handed policing. Policies which literally take on a life or death importance have to be founded on compassion and compromise.
