Film

Shores – In the Safe Northern Sun
2015, Documentary, Italy, France, 60 min.

Direction: Irene Dionisio
Script: Irene Dionisio
Editing: Alessandro Zorio
Producers: Ilaria Malagutti (Mammut Film), Davy Chous (Vycky Films), Sylvain Decouvelaere (Vycky Films), Luisa Perlo (a.titolo)

Synopsis
One day Mohsen Lidhabi, in Zarzis, Tunisia, searching on the beach for materials for his sculptures, finds a body. Without too many questions, he decides to give the stranger a decent burial, sparking endless controversy in his home community and among Ben Ali’s supporters. On another shore of the Mediterranean, in Lampedusa, Vincenzo witnesses the same epiphany and makes the same decision, raising criticism from the religious community that disputes the use of crosses for the burial of non-Catholic men. Shortly afterwards, Vincenzo receives a letter written in French from an unknown sender who, like him, has chosen to bury the nameless bodies that arrived from the sea in the wake of the Arab Spring. The two men, Mohsen and Vincenzo, and their shy contact speak to us of a profound humanity confronted with the obscenity of current history; the reactions of the communities they belong to tell, on the other hand, of man’s perennial struggle for dignity, even at the cost of marginalisation.