MARE MAGNUM

The heated election campaign of the green municipal candidate, Giusi Nicolini, on the island of Lampedusa, offers an original view of a place abandoned as much by the cinema as by the rest of the world. Transformed – through no wish of its own – into the cemetery for Africans emigrating to Europe, the archipelago has suddenly and visibly become an inhabited place. Had thought been given to its residents, who were outnumbered in winter 2011 following the exiles due to the “Arab Spring” and neglected by Berlusconi’s government? As with Palermo’s city hall in Palazzo delle Aquile, Ester Sparatore (who co-directed it) and Letizia Gullo take a deep look into this abandonment. Rather than start with the media’s representation (migrants in transit, reception structures inadequate for the influx), they follow a mayoral candidate, Giusi Nicolini, whose green approach and initial job (she headed the Lampedusa nature reserve) place her outside the politicking maelstrom depicted in several comic scenes. With no reliance on suspense (she was elected in May 2012), Mare Magnum also brings to life an entire local landscape. One of the film’s greatest qualities is to combine the international dimension of this unbelievable island with an account of the ordinariness of its village life.

Charlotte Garson