Film Review: Terraferma
What would you do when you witness people’s lives were at stake? If one is under no obligations to intervene, is the action of staying put as a bystander justified? Or should one be allowed to step in and help, even if that involves breaking the laws? In the film Terraferma, the sudden arrival of a group of illegal immigrants raised a dilemma for the residents on a small coastal island.
Located just south of Sicily, the town of Linosa is predominantly known for its gifted natural beauty. With the hopes to make some extra money during the summer, fishman Filippo’s mother Giulietta renovated the family’s old house and turned it into a hotel. Giulietta, like the many other locals in the area, were also frustrated about the scattered economic resources, and despised being
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The scenarios that Terraferma have described are nonetheless all too familiar to developed European countries today. The scene where the tourists were leaping off the cruise ship for fun as the illegal immigrants were jumping off the sinking boat for survival is heart-wrenching to say the least. Still, illegal immigration is a complicate global issue; and as the tragedies in Terraferma demonstrated, its burden is too heavy to rest on the shoulders of average citizens. In order to reduce the negative impacts that migration crisis have already generated, sympathies are simply not enough to solve the problems. Rather than pass the shared responsibility to cooperate and abandon the vulnerable populations without hesitation, politicians that have the ability to make a difference, must not ignore those innocent individuals who are wrestling with death along the Mediterranean Sea, slowly drifting away with our humanitarian duties in the