Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)

Samuele is 12 years old. After school, he meets his friends or roams the area with a homemade slingshot. He wants to become a fisherman, just like his father. Samuele grows up on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, where life has always been shaped by what the sea brings. For years now, mostly people – thousands of refugees who have ventured on a perilous journey in the desperate hope of a better life.

Fire at Sea portrays life on the island of Lampedusa – both idyllic Mediterranean island and setting of a humanitarian tragedy. Film director Gianfranco Rosi spent one year observing everyday life on there, on the ‘island of hope’. The moving documentary won over audiences and critics alike at the Berlinale and was awarded the Golden Bear in the category best film.

The screening is part of a collaboration between the Kunsthaus Hamburg and the Metropolis Kino as part of the exhibition Over Land and Sea. The joint film programme ties in with the themes of the group exhibition, which tells of the migrant history of humanity, its present and future. In a tension between the tangible and the mythical, the animate and the industrial world, the works on display point to the vulnerability of human beings and, simultaneously, their inherent ability to change and transform. They encourage a humanistic reflection on the way we live today.