Stark realism in this intense drama of the perilous journey of 2 men emigrating from their home in Burkina Faso to Libya, and ending up in Italy, as they seek better opportunities. The men ably portrayed by Kondous Seihon,as Ayiya, and Alassane Sy, as Abas, will have to survive an initial hazardous trek across the desert, that will also include facing murderous bandits, difficult weather, and a dangerous sea crossing, before being picked up by the Italian Navy.

Given 3 month temporary papers to stay in Italy, Ayiya and Abas must now face squalid living conditions, low-paying seasonal jobs, and a mostly hostile public and police force. However, they'll also encounter a tight knit African immigrant community who try and help each other, and a number of local Italians who will also try to help them. Considering the news of today, this film is certainly timely in its nature.

All in all, regardless of what side of the immigrant issue one is on, you may find this movie, impressively written and directed by first time filmmaker Jonas Carpignano, offers the viewer a vivid and realistic view of it all.

MEDITERRANEA written and directed by Jonas Carpignano who has been working on this film for 5 years. Initially in 2010, he intended the project to be a short documentary on the African immigrants who were mainly farm workers in the town of Rosarno in Calbria, Italy protesting against their discriminatory treatment and horrific squalid living conditions.

"… several thousand immigrants live in and around Rosarno while helping with the harvest of oranges and clementines…On the Gioia Tauro plain which encompasses Rosarno, they are collected each morning by overseers and driven into citrus groves for work that can last from dawn to dusk…"They earn €25 a day", said Father Ennio Stamile of the Roman Catholic charity Caritas. 'They have to send money to their countries to maintain their families and also live here. Not much is left for them. The economic crisis has exacerbated their situation…On the plain, there are about 2,000 African immigrants who sleep the night crowded together in a former paper mill and another large building, said Monsignor Pino de Masi, the vicar-general of the Oppido-Palmi diocese. 'If anyone from central government were to see the conditions in which they live, without sanitation, electricity, water or heating, they would not be surprised by what has happened.' " (The Guardian, John Hooper 1/2/2010)

Nights of violence between the migrants and the Italian locals led to many injuries and during the day demonstrators - marched on Town Hall to demand an end to racial intolerance. Into this highly-charged milieu, the Director Carpignano met an Aftrican migrant, Koudous Seihon from Burkina Faso whose powerful presence changed the trajectory of his original concept - from a short documentary to a full-length feature film based on the life and stories told to him by Seihon who also agreed to play the lead character, Ayiva - a beautiful, nuanced performance conveying steadiness of character with a deep longing for his homeland and the seven year old daughter he left behind, combined with an optimistic view of a future that is fraught with barriers based on color, and economic bleakness.

MEDITERRANEA follows the well worn path to "the promised land" which unknowingly is often seeded with hopelessness and despair. In this fictional dramatization of Koudous Seihon's own trek, Ayiva must first obtain the money to leave Burkina Faso and is forced to pay unscrupulous brokers high fees to get a seat on a truck filled with fellow travelers - herded together like lambs going to slaughter.

I am an artist whose focus has been on refugees and migrants for the past 14 years and the images on the screen reflected my paintings like a mirror - literally pictures moving. I wanted to cry out "hold that frame, and the next one, and the one after, etc. etc!!!!" Once on their journey to Europe the exhausted bands of wanderers have to go through many difficult and life threatening trials - all on foot - over Algiers; stumbling through the dry vast seemingly limitless Libyan desert, where bandits/ human vultures prey on the vulnerable; and the final "labor" - maneuvering a small boat without a seasoned navigator through the volatile waters of the Mediterranean Sea exposed to nature's moods - be they light-filled or threatening storms - until those that endure arrive in Calabria - the toe of Italy where the local welcome is wary and impassive and often downright aggressive and dangerous.

Wyatt Garfield's cinematography is immediate and intimate. The hand-held camera bounces along with the fleeing characters contributing to the chaotic climate and the confusion of flight - we don't know where we are; there are moments when the lens is in and out of focus, an arm, a leg an eye bounces on the screen, distance is compressed - near and far become a blur, and we in the audience experience the tension and agitation of the approaching unknown.

We follow Ayiva and his best friend Abas (Alassane Sy),a languid, narcissistic, spoiled man envisioning Europe as a huge Hollywood fantasy with a dream of sexy women responding to his "handsome charms" - who smashes up against reality filling him with anguish at the fetid and wretched circumstances he and his friend are forced to occupy, falling into depression and despondency, eventually striking back in frenzied frustration.

MEDITERRANEA is not delusional cinema - it is a heard-hitting view of displacement, contrasting cultures with moments of shared humanity. The flight from the homeland - is a painfully difficult one which requires a steeliness of will and some humor. That humor is injected by a teenaged Italian boy Pio (Pio Amato),a consummate tradesman who barters with the African immigrants and is a dead-panned comic. In contrast the immigrant women are often exploited by theItalian men, and we catch a glimpse of how they are sexually abused -barely witnessed by the camera, silhouettes in the act of fellatiobehind a dim, closing door.

The film climaxes with the immigrants' fierce uprising on the streets of the city after the destruction and collapse of their tawdry makeshift "homes" - demolished by the Italian Police - Carabinieri. The locales in the community are brutal in their response - a retelling of the original Rosarno outbreak, where Director Jonas Carpignano first met Seihon (Ayiva) who would galvanize this movie; an attempt to narrate crossing borders without any simple answers to what we see daily in the "headlines".

Mediterranea is the first feature film of Jonas Carpignano who based his tale of African migrants emigrating to Italy on his own earlier short film created in 2012. Carpignano traveled to Italy after a race riot in the town of Rosarno in 2010 and decided to investigate the unfortunate plight of African migrants in European cities, specifically in Italy, where the problem is particularly vexing.

Carpignano was fortunate to find first-time actor, Koudous Seihon, who plays Ayiva from the African country of Burkina Faso. He, along with his buddy, Abas, make the perilous journey through Algeria on to Libya and then take a harrowing boat ride, where both the intrepid and foolhardy emigrants are picked up by the Italian coast guard after their flimsy boat capsizes in a storm. Carpignano highlights the horrors of the journey including scores of migrants packed into old trucks like sardines, trekking through the desert on foot and then being robbed of all their money by bandits and finally being forced to pilot a rickety motor boat without the aid of a competent navigator.

Once they arrive, Ayiva is met by an uncle who only can provide shelter for a very short time. They are guided to a shantytown by a buddy from the old country and are given a 3 month temporary residence permit by the Italian government. If they are unable to find regular "contract" work, they will be forced to return home.

Carpignano documents Ayiva's sad travails in a cinema-verité documentary style. A good deal of the plot is episodic: in an early scene, Ayiva steals a suitcase on a train in order to obtain sweaters for himself and Abas. He also negotiates the sale of an MP3 player with a young 10 year old Italian hustler. that he also pilfered while on the train,

Eventually Ayiva finds work at an orange grove—the owner, Rocco, takes a liking to him and gives him extra work. The family invites some of the workers into their home and provide them with a home-cooked meal. While Ayiva is not averse to assimilating, Abas resents the minimal wages he receives and is content to put in the least effort he can.

Carpignano manages to humanize the plight of African migrant workers by focusing on both their private lives and the social milieu they exist in. Ayiva's SKYPE conversations with his wife and young daughter back in Africa reveal that he is at heart a family man. But being separated over such a long distance leads to an unhealthy interest in his boss' precocious young daughter who at one point Ayiva expresses a desire to have sex with. Free time is sometimes spent socializing with some African women who live double lives as prostitutes.

Carpignano also highlights the backlash from local residents, particularly young Italian toughs, who are constantly seeking to provoke the Africans into a fight. One scene features a car full of rowdies almost side-swiping Ayiva and his friends as they walk innocently on a road on the outskirts of the city.

The tension between the locals and the migrants reach their apex when word is received that two blacks have been murdered. Carpignano doesn't show us the circumstances of the murders and the news is thrown at us rather abruptly. Almost immediately, the migrants begin to riot, with the crowd chanting, "don't shoot at blacks." During the mayhem, Abas is beaten by a mob and seriously injured. Ayiva is also swept up in the mob violence and ends up also as a participant where cars are firebombed, property destroyed and individuals beaten.

There are certainly no happy endings for Akiva. It looks like he's going to return home after Rocco fails to help him obtain the necessary contract work which would lead to a permanent work permit. While the plot is not necessarily thoroughly developed, Carpigano's observations about the lives of African migrants in Europe are presented in sharp and prescient relief. There are assuredly more good things to come from Mr. Carpignano, whose auspicious debut should be thoroughly applauded.