Fire at Sea - Review

Some of the most powerful documentaries ever made simply let their subjects tell their stories themselves. If the observational route is taken to its furthermost point, like in 2014’s Maidan, we’re allowed a truer glimpse of real-life people and their real-life situations, for by removing the narrative voice of the filmmakers we get closer to the point they were possibly trying to make in the first place; that their movie is everything about what’s in front of the camera, and nothing to do with what’s behind it. In Fire at Sea, a sobering portrait of the European immigration crisis, filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi takes a similar approach – but to curiously little impact.