Limbo

A documentary by Zalab

Genre
Documentary, Italy 2014, 56’

Trailer
www.zalab.org

Script
Matteo Calore, Gustav Hofer, Andrea Segre

Directed by
Matteo Calore, Gustav Hofer

Photography
Matteo Calore, Gustav Hofer

Editing
Sara Zavarise

Musiche
Santi Pulvirenti

Sound
Alberto Cagol

Format
HD

Language
Italian, Espagnol, English

Prizes and screenings
Broadcast on RAI 3 – DOC 3 on the 27th of August 2014
African Cinema Festival, Verona 2014
Lo sguardo di Omero Festival, Melendugno (Lecce) 2014.

Synopsis
Imagine one of your loved ones, someone you live with – your father, partner, mother, a son or a brother – to be suddenly arrested and taken away by the police, imprisoned far from home with the risk of being expelled from Italy forever. Imagine these things happening not because of any criminal act nor for a perpetration of violence, but merely because of a lack of proper papers.
Such is an extremely distressing scenario and it represents a concrete risk for the families of those immigrants who, even when socially integrated, still find themselves in a position of conflict with the Italian bureaucracy. That’s the experience of Alejandro Bouchaib, Karim and Peter, all locked up in some C.I.E. (Centre for Identification and Expulsion) in Turin, Rome and Trapani. Detention also affects their families, who remain suspended in a limbo: waiting for their loved ones to return home or be forced to leave Italy forever. Limbo tells these stories of wait, anger and fear. Stories of relationships built and cultivated on the edge of different cultures and families, where children seem destined to suffer for the absence of their fathers and women have to bear the weight of an unjust and heartless law.

Distribution
The aim of the project is to organize a number of cultural events in different Italian cities linked to the documentary LIMBO, co-funded by Open Society Foundations. The film tells the story of four men who are detained in inhuman conditions in some of Italy’s detention and expulsion centres, called C.I.E. and about the impact this has not only on their lives but also on the life of their beloved ones who are waiting for them at home in the uncertainty if their son, father or husband is going to come back or if he is going to be expelled from Italy.
The distribution strategy is based on 3 main elements:

1) The lightened hot-air balloons
In the documentary a hot-air balloon is flying over Torino. It is a image that is recurrent throughout the film, a symbol for the pending lives of our protagonists. Therefor we use this metaphor and organize seven flash mobs in seven cities on seven different days a lightened small balloon event for people: we will invite people to let fly over a square dozen of small chinese lanterns, which will be metaphors of the documentary’s hot-air balloon. This will create curiosity and will attract other persons to join the performance in order to understand what’s happening, Therefore we will create at the base of the flying lanterns an info point about the C.I.E. issue. At the info point one of the directors will introduce one of the protagonists of the film. During the event he will tell the audience about his experience in the C.I.E. and invite them to come to the screening that same evening. The screenings and talks following the film, are organized together with local NGO’s and cultural associations.

2) Campaign
All the events will be filmed and documented, short interviews with people who joined the flags mobs, also the moments when the audience meets the protagonist of the documentary and their discussions, will be filmed and published on film’s blog and ZaLab website. All this will help to boost the distribution and the start of Limbo Tour

3) Limbo Tour
Following the lightened balloons start which hopefully will get
media attention and create awareness around the issue, the directors and some of the protagonists of the film will tour around Italy for screenings around the country, creating after each screening a platform for discussion.