Persisting Dreams

DIRECTOR: Côme Ledésert   COUNTRY: Germany   YEAR: 2015   LANGUAGE(S): Italian SUBTITLES: English   RUNNING TIME: 25 min  

SECTION: InternationalForum 2015

SYNOPSIS

Toni, a fisherman in a small village on Lampedusa, talks about rescuing African refugees from the sea. He talks about cooking for them, about the smile on one of their faces when he spoke with his mother on the phone, as well as of the problems that a fisherman who rescues refugees is confronted with. This is a wonderful case for humanity.

The power of the film comes from Toni’s humane stance: His respect for the people who cross the Mediterranean can be felt in all of his words and gestures. What is frightening is that the viewer might be surprised – surprised that a fisherman on Lampedusa can be so humane, that he does not consider the refugees a danger, but simply people, people with whom it’s possible to have a good time with, to suffer with, to help. This is something that he takes for granted – an infrequent attitude in much of the debate about refugees.

CÔME LEDÉSERT
Côme Ledésert was born in 1989 in France. In 2014 he made his degree in Visual Anthropology at the Free University Berlin. His short film LES FIDÉLITÉs was in the competition at the Achtung Berlin – New Berlin Award in 2014 and the competition Shortcutz Berlin. His short documentary ALMUT was shown at international film festivals in Estonia, the US, Canada and Germany. With the combination of animation and documentary his graduation film PERSISTING DREAMS explores the boundaries between fiction and documentation as well as of science and art.

FILMOGRAPHY

Les fidélités (2013), Almut (2014), Persisting Dreams (2015)

SCRIPT: Côme Ledésert   PRODUCER: Côme Ledésert   CAMERA: Côme Ledésert   EDITOR: Côme Ledésert 

PRODUCTION: Côme Ledésert, Institut für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie / FU Berlin      GERMAN DISTRIBUTOR: Aug&Ohr Medien