DEApress

Ccà Semu, 2018/ Italy/ Doc/ 30’/ Ita-Eng.sub/ Dir. Luca Vullo
CCÀ Semu, ‘here we are’, is how the people from the Italian island of Lampedusa define their place in the world with both pride and resignation. Surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of kilometres away from the mainland, Lampedusa has become the symbolic centre of the current Mediterranean migration ‘crisis’. While dealing with the ethical challenges of this global ‘crisis’, the islanders must also find responses to the local struggles of their isolated community at the periphery of Europe.

Oath Bound, 2018/ United Kingdom/ Short/ 20’/ Eng/ Dir. Ola Laniyan
Oath Bound tells the story of Nneka who has been tricked into the Nigerian trafficking industry. After four years, she decides to take risks to break the Oath with the African Gods and take charge of her own destiny.

Our Africa, 2018/ Russian Federation/ Doc/ 45’/ Russ-Eng.sub/ Dir. Alexander Markov,
With his documentary Our Africa, director Alexander Markov uses found footage to collage Russia's perspective in the era of independence. Technical equipment and knowledge for the modernisation of agriculture, infrastructure, education and health was provided alongside a free socialist ideology. The Russian mission was accompanied by photographers and film makers to report back home about the creation of an African utopia. The documentary film material demonstrates how the USA and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, staked out the ground of their influence in Africa. With his film, Alexander Markov also commemorates the visions and spirit of optimism of these years, leading to the question of what became of them.