In <i>Fire at Sea</i>, Tragedy and Normalcy Live Side by Side
An Italian woman kisses a Virgin Mary statue after she methodically makes her bed and begins her morning. A Nigerian migrant recounts the prayer he said while traversing the Sahara, as others in a dark room chant along with him. A boy rows in the harbor under an overcast sky. The Italian coast guard rushes out to rescue drowning migrants and bring them ashore.
Stitched together, these affecting vignettes and others make up the noteworthy Oscar-nominated documentary, (). The Italian director Gianfranco Rosi has made what sometimes feels like two separate films, whose stories come so is a powerful, and beautifully shot, look at the migrant crisis—one that manages to subvert viewer expectations of what has become for many a familiar news subject.
