Mediterranea

This calm, hardheaded film never sacrifices its toughness for a swooning, misty-eyed moment of hope.

It renders a global crisis in strikingly intimate terms.

The film proves a piercing character study whose narrow view frustrates complete empathy.

If a movie as rich and understanding as Mediterranea suddenly appeared every time we read about a difficult issue in the paper, maybe all of the world’s problems could be solved.

The film is unwaveringly attentive to problematizing the dividing line between predator and prey.

For the most part an assured film, confident in both the drama and the truth of the scenario it observes, this ground-level view of the immigrant experience feels both pinpoint specific and all too representative of the obstacles and attitudes that face so many illegals, in so many parts of the world.

Writer-director Jonas Carpignano glosses over much of the sociopolitical context in his depictions of the chain of events.