Terraferma

Emanuele Crialese's "Terraferma" at once draws attention to refugees from Africa trying to enter Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, braving all manner of dangerous conditions. This has intensified in the past few years, as people flee violence not only in Africa, but also in the Middle East. Millions saw the photo of the Syrian man crying over his dead son on the shore. There can be no doubt that military actions led to increased terrorism, further inflaming these regions. It was especially ironic in Libya, since longtime strongman Moammar Qaddafi had been a bete noire for the US for ages, but then became a US ally in the so-called War on Terrorism (no kidding; he and Condoleezza Rice became good friends), only to see the US overthrow him in 2011.

But the other thing is the current treatment of Latin American refugees in the US. We've seen the footage of children getting torn away from their parents and put in detention cages near the border. Not much different from what Italy's authorities do in this movie.

But anyway, to not get moved by this movie is to not have a soul. The blue expanse of the Mediterranean is as much a character as any of the actors. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

A remarkable film from a group of busy Italian film makers whose output is largely unknown in the English speaking world, though the director's RESPIRO did get some sub-titled screening. This one deserves the Oscar it's been put up for.

Hardships among Sicilian fishermen (oh oh) who become involved with I clandestini - illegal immigrants (Oh Oh!) but this one has a sharper edge than the do gooder-films that usually make their way into art theatres. The night time white water advancing on the small boat has genuine menace and the again admirable Finocchiaro turning on the black woman they saved, when pregnant and abandoned by her fellow escapees, is all the more effective because it's unfamiliar. The film is not without compassion but underlays it with a new realism.

Cast, crisp camera-work, sunny scenes of ocean front life, the spectacle of half clothed tourist merry makers, whose relation with the locals is as dodgy as that of the Africans, all add to the impact of an involving and accomplished production.

The theme is good. Nowadays, social rules are becoming more and more rational, losing the beauty that people should have. But the script is weak, the story is fragmented, the plot is too intermittent, and the turning point is too abrupt. But the lens has a great impact on people, especially the delicate layered black beach.

All the characters in Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma are in search of the solid ground, for safety, for the certainty of tomorrow. And yet, nothing seems to be solid in their destinies. The story happens on a small island near the bigger island of Sicily, an area of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The local community sees its traditional economy based on fishing threatened, its mode of life based on honor and the rough justice of the sea threatened by everything around - decaying fishing crops, invading tourists, the dissolution of the moral fabric of the local society. And then an apparently bigger threat comes as desperate African boat immigrants start showing up at the shores, after having risked their lives in the stormy seas, flying in despair the devastated continent of their birth.

I am not sure if the programming of this film together with the French 'Intouchables' was a coincidence. Both films deal with the problem of the African refugees seen as a symbol of the different people of different cultures trying to enter the Old Continent, same as repeated waves of immigration have stormed its gates all along the history. The same thing happens today in my country, and there are no easy responses, not on what concerns the clash of cultures and mentalities, not on the political or economic planes, and not on the human one. The shared message of the two films with their very different stories told in very different registers is that human beings can find their resources and show solidarity at moments of maximal crisis.

Despite the story line which is a little too expected and simplistic 'Terraferma' succeeds to create emotion, with a few direct and well directed scenes. The story is a coming to age and an Italian family drama in the good Italian tradition to the same extent that it is an immigrant drama. The film is beautifully filmed, the director and the cameraman obviously love the sea and the landscape of the Mediterranean and make the best of these in a few sequences to remember. With good acting and a message that is fundamentally optimistic in its trust of the capacity of men staying human in the most adverse situations the rather anonymous 'Terraferma' did not fall much behind the 'Intouchables' which was one of the most successful films in the history of the French cinema.

"Terraferma" has an awful lot of things going on in it. Set on the isle of Sicily off of Italy's southern coast, there's a generational battle going on between a grandfather, his son and a grandson over the family fishing boat and business. There's a battle going on between the grandson and his mother over his future. There's a battle going on between the business/tourism faction of the island and the problem of illegal immigration. There's a battle between the Italian Coast Guard and the older generation of fishermen over the practice of the traditional "Law of the Sea." There's a battle between the local police force (the carabinieri) and the fishermen.

All these battles come together one fateful night when the grandfather adheres to tradition and refuses to leave African emmigrants in the water to drown. The ramifications of this act reverberate through all members of his family, even more so when he refuses to turn a pregnant woman over to the police and gives her shelter.

The film focuses on the character of Filippo, the grandson torn between the generations. Respectful and almost adoring of his grandfather, his belief in him (and his grandfather's beliefs) is challenged in the film's most disturbing scene. He is given the chance to uphold the "Law of the Sea" - and fails.

It sounds hackneyed to call "Terraferma" a 'coming of age' story. The difference here is that Filippo is not the only one coming of age. The grandfather, the son, the grandson, the mother and the nation itself are all coming of age - a new, global age with a whole new set of challenges. How do traditions survive in this age? With great difficulty, but by one person at a time.

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