Fire at Sea

1

The island of Lampedusa

has a surface area of 20 square km,

it lies 70 miles from the African

coast and 120 miles from Sicily.

In the past 20 years 400,000

migrants have landed on Lampedusa.

In the attempt to cross

the Strait of Sicily to reach Europe

it is estimated that

15,000 people have died.

What is it, Dick?

How many people?

- How many people?

- 250.

Your position.

We beg you, please.

- Your position!

- In the name of God!

Your position.

Your position.

Please, we beg you.

Your position.

My friend... hello?

And now the news.

Happy Sunday to all, here we are

again with our daily news segment.

Among the bodies recovered yesterday

60 miles off Lampedusa

were the bodies

of women and children.

On the boat that sank

there were 250 people,

so far, 34 bodies

have been recovered,

rescuers have pulled

206 people from the sea.

Poor souls.

To other news:

tomorrow from 10:00 till 12:30

there will be an interruption

in power supply...

Let's see how it turned out.

It's perfect,

only I made it a bit zigzag.

You take aim like this,

you put your other eye like this

and take aim, got it?

You gotta have passion,

if you don't have passion...

You gotta make a slingshot right.

I wasn't holding it right.

Take aim, show me.

Now let go.

See this handle, see how good it is?

I got a dry one,

but it's from a pine tree

and pines trees are resistant.

Olive?

Olive too, and trees

that you find in people's gardens.

Whenever you see a branch

shaped like a handle, you take it.

This was a bit dry when I got it

but pine trees are resistant.

- Sure.

- It's real strong.

To break this handle

it would take the hand of God.

See?

You have to take aim properly.

Let's say that's a bird...

We bring two torches,

if one goes out,

we've got the other one.

Here.

There's no birds here.

Come here.

I saw it, it's over there.

Go!

Awesome, Samuele!

You nearly got it.

Go look for a stone.

No, you go get the stone.

Please fast your position.

- 32.1...

- And then?

- Under.

- Okay, 80.52.

We have small children,

please can you help us?

How many people on board?

I think about 150 people.

What kind of boat?

They say 130, 150.

Most of them

are women and children.

Can you help us?

We are sinking.

We are sinking... the same

coordinates, we will not move.

Madam, please, calm down.

We will send rescue,

but you need to calm down.

Save your battery,

I will call you back.

Is she the mother?

Who was the little girl's mother?

The one who got off before.

There should be 13 women,

eight boys and six girls.

Those we've debarked have

no particular health issues,

some have scabies and that's it.

There's just one with chicken pox,

he'll be the last to board.

Repeat,

there's one case of chicken pox

who will be the last to board.

What's this photo?

That's in a bar, in Las Palmas.

And where's this?

Here in the cabin, with the Koreans.

Is he holding an orange?

He was eating an orange

with the peel.

In your cabin,

were those photos already there?

No, we put them up.

Nice.

We slept in our clothes,

in woollen hose.

- Were you always on the boat?

- Always.

A year without going home?

Six, seven months on board.

- Even a year?

- No, never a year.

- Six, seven months.

- Always at sea?

Always at sea, only sky and sea,

always on board.

And under here were...

Good weather and bad,

we were always on board.

How many in a cabin?

- Three people.

- Maximum three?

Beds underneath and on top?

Bunk beds.

It was a hard life,

it wasn't a nice life.

Why was it hard?

We were always on board, sky and sea.

We never went ashore.

Stop!

Mattias, stop!

Come on, stop!

Stop already!

Look.

The heart.

The first one is a girl, like you.

You understand?

Girl.

How do you say?

Girl, woman...

How do you say it?

Got it?

Very good.

Now let's see the second one.

This is the head of the second one.

Second one... head.

The cultural mediator is on his way

so we can communicate better.

In all this confusion

we need to find...

we need to find the other sex.

How do we do it?

It's a bit of a muddle.

The legs and arms are intertwined.

Lord...

We'll follow the spine,

so we can't go wrong.

Here's the head.

The spine...

They're intertwined,

the legs of one

with the legs of the other.

How can I tell them apart?

Slowly, slowly, we'll get there.

The placenta is anterior.

This is all the placenta.

The amniotic fluid is scarce

because she's suffered, poor soul,

so the pregnancy suffers too.

But it's all right,

all things considered,

after everything she's been through,

rescued off the boat and so on...

Look, see the profile?

The nape of the neck,

forehead and this is the profile.

- We're grinding them down.

- Yeah, we're destroying them.

Destroyed!

A fizzer.

Watch.

It's all broken.

It won't stick.

It won't stick, wait.

Let's wind it round.

- Here, wind it.

- I'll go this way.

Now over here.

- All good.

- Let's go.

Slowly, there's no rush.

This lot's from the Ivory Coast.

Another one!

Look at his scarf!

Another one.

What a smell of diesel fuel.

- They're drenched in diesel.

- Soaked.

If I flick my lighter

I'll go up in flames.

Is he soaked in diesel fuel?

If I flick my lighter

I'll catch fire.

You can still smell it

with the mask on.

Just a little hair.

Just a tiny bit.

That's fine.

Okay.

Thank you.

There...

English homework all done.

I read this, this one and that one.

Listen to the thunder.

You can't go outside,

the weather's bad.

When Grandpa went out to fish

and the weather was good,

I took bread to him.

I was your age, Samuele.

And they went to sea.

You took bread to him.

Grandpa would get off the boat

and I would hand him the bread.

They stayed out all day,

in the evening

they came back in,

they were scared to go out at night

they only went during the day.

Why?

Because navy ships

would pass by at night,

it was wartime.

More thunder.

Listen to the thunder!

The ships fired rockets

and at sea, it was like...

It was like there was fire at sea.

Fire at sea?

The sea turned red.

Wartime.

Enough, you killed 'em all.

Look!

I got him, stone-cold dead.

Got the slingshot?

It's Auntie Maria.

I want to dedicate a song

to my son Nello,

"Fire at Sea",

if you can put it to air

because it's still bad weather

and they can't go out fishing,

no one's earning anything

with this awful weather.

Here's hoping the weather improves.

Thanks, Pippo, bye.

"My Little Donkey",

another Sicilian song.

And on with the show.

We have another request:

Maria dedicates to her son Nello,

in the hope the weather improves

so he can go out in the boat to work,

the song "Fire at Sea".

I'd like to join her

and dedicate it to all the fishermen.

So, by request, "Fire at Sea".

D, C, E, Z, K.

The last one?

R, E, V, O, Z.

- The second line too?

- No.

Let's see the other one.

Now read the first line.

Can't you see it?

Not like this,

if I go like this, maybe,

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