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Beyond the Statistics: Against the Concept of Bare Life in Cinema and Graphic Novels
The journeys of African migrants striving to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea have dominated the headlines for more than a decade. On one hand, the nationalist and right-wing populists, such as Meloni’s government, have exploited this tragedy to create anxieties about immigration, while humanitarian groups have blamed economic failures and human rights abuses as key factors resulting in the deaths of thousands. In this heated debate between populists and human rights activists, cultural products aim to humanize the migrant experience. Matteo Garrone’s movie Io Capitano (2023) as well as Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin’s graphic novel Illegal (2017), illustrated by Giovanni Rigano, tackle the tragedy of young teenagers seeking a better future in Europe, particularly in Italy, by riskily crossing both the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Dea. One of the primary aims of both cultural products is to go beyond the mere statistics. When interviewed by E. Nina Rothe in [...]
21.11.2024
