Those who seek political asylum in Italy fear for their very survival. They are forced to wait for several years, are forbidden to work and receive no assistance from the state. They are not provided with lodging, food or information. The refugees set up communes, build shelters, squat in derelict buildings near centers of agricultural employment and frequently move around according to the harvest season. They survive thanks to their network of solidarity, voluntary organizations and black market work. Starting in Rome, where a vast community has squatted in the old state railway warehouses next to Tiburtina station, the film traces stopovers in the journey of a nomadic population of asylum-seekers who, crossing the Italian peninsula, must head for the centers of seasonal harvesting in order to survive. An exploration of the exile of heroes, deserters and refugees from the wars in post-colonial Africa: the new migrants of Europe. "We tried to understand some of the mechanisms of Italian asylum law. We also collected personal stories and diaries of voyages from Africa to Europe, and then we decided to film the maximum surface or geography of Italian exile. We wanted everything we filmed to be clearly identifiable as ocurring in the present day." Domenico Distilo
Production + World Sales: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
Screenplay: Iosella Porto, Federico Fava, Domenico Distilo
Cinematographers: Christian Andres Burgos Hurtubia, Massimiliano Taricco, Maurizio Tiella
Editor: Paola Fornasier
With: Mohammed Alì Abubakar, Samuel Teklu, Lual Shoull, Adam, Joanna W. M. Henneman, Gianni Calastri, Ridvan Ozmen, Nur Mohammed Jamshidi, Matteo Delbò
Format: Digital Beta Pal, Color
Running time: 50 minutes
Language: Italian
