“We’re all in the same boat”, Berlin Film Festival director Dieter Kosslick told Italian director film Gianfranco Rosi.
Rosi’s documentary, Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea) is in competition at this year’s Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) and one of a dozen that deal with mass migration and its impact on Europe. The festival has offered free tickets and jobs at the festival to refugees.
The Venice Film Festival winner (Sacro GRA) brings Italy’s only entry to this year’s competition; Fire At Sea was shot on and around the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, near the North African coast in the headlines since the early 2000s as a primary destination for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from African and the Middle East.
“Refugees have always played a role at the Berlinale, since 1951,” said Kosslick. “Back then many Germans were refugees and the festival was founded to foster understanding in German society and among nations.”
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