Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) (2016) - Rotten Tomatoes

Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) (2016)

TOMATOMETER

94%
93%

AUDIENCE SCORE

78%

Critic Consensus: Fire at Sea offers a clear-eyed yet empathetic look at a corner of the world whose terrain may be unfamiliar to many, but whose people's story remains universal.

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Movie Info

Winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival 2016, Gianfranco Rosi's incisive, poignant and deeply moving portrait of the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa--and the humanitarian crisis occurring in the seas around it--is both a masterly work of documentary filmmaking and a timely call for urgent action. Situated 150 miles south of Sicily, Lampedusa has hit headlines as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees hoping to make a new life in Europe. After spending months living on the island and engaging with its inhabitants, Rosi accumulated an incredible array of footage, portraying the history, culture and daily lives of the islanders. Focusing on 12-year-old Samuele, as he explores the land and attempts to gain mastery of the sea, the film slowly builds a breathtakingly naturalistic portrait of the Lampedusan people and the events that surround them. The result is a lyrical, poetic and searingly powerful documentary that casts neither judgement nor aspersions, but simply shows the world to the viewer--to utterly devastating effect.

Cast

Pietro Bartolo
Samuele Puccilo

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Critic Reviews for Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare)

All Critics (64) | Top Critics (14)

Though conceived as a humanitarian statement, the movie wouldn't be as memorable or challenging without its quotidian aspect.

Full Review… | December 15, 2016
Chicago Reader
Top Critic

We feel the bewilderment of the parochial yet decent residents, the helplessness of the well-intentioned yet overwhelmed rescuers, and the anguish and disorientation of the refugees.

Full Review… | December 7, 2016
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic

What makes the movie worth seeing, is the sequence with the Africans chanting in the detention center about making it from Africa, through the scorching Sudanese desert and Libya, to Lampedusa.

Full Review… | October 28, 2016
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic

Fire at Sea is a shining example of journalism fueled by outrage and shaped by free-ranging curiosity.

Full Review… | October 27, 2016
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic

What "Fire at Sea" appears to be and what it is are not the same thing, and it's that difference that makes it a masterful documentary.

Full Review… | October 27, 2016
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic

Rosi films the migrants empathetically but sentimentally; he depicts helicopters and ships with bombastic grandeur. What's more, half the movie has nothing to do with migrants ...

Full Review… | October 24, 2016
New Yorker
Top Critic
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Audience Reviews for Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare)

A striking look at the European refugee crisis whose fly-on-the-wall directing approach lets it build a revealing portrait of two contrasting realities. Full review on filmotrope. com

Carlos Magalhães
Carlos Magalhães

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