The refugee crisis is probably the most important challenge facing Europe today. In most European legislation, the «refusal of assistance» is penalized, that is, the refusal to provide assistance to an injured person on the road, for example. This is what article 412 of the Penal Code in force in our country states. A crime that is based on a moral and ethical principle that everyone can understand and share. But where are the limits of this provision of compulsory aid? It should not include those who knock on the doors of Europe fleeing in fear of certain death, of a house and a life destroyed by the violence of one sign or another that has settled in their village? Inexplicably it seems not.
The documentary filmmaker and Hebrew singer Mario Pons Múria approaches, with his latest work, this complex problem from a very personal point of view, projecting a light of fraternity that unites the present of the Syrian people with the past of Spanish republicanism, all looking for answers to the current moral crisis that is ravaging Europe.
Miquel is dispatched from the multinational he works for and goes to the refugee camps as a volunteer; the Buda lighthouse is set on fire before the Battle of the Ebro, the lighthouse keeper’s family is forced to leave it, Alfred retraces the path of exile to discover the darkest part of his childhood; Ammar works in a car factory in Damascus and flees the bombs in search of a safe home for his family in the EU. A story of three exiles: the present of the Syrian people, the past of Spanish republicanism and the interior of the individual in Europe today.
For the presentation and subsequent discussion we will have, as always, the presence of the director, Mario Pons, and some of his protagonists.
Data sheet
Title: The Periple
Written and performed by: Mario Pons
Post-production: Laura Hierro
Soundtrack: The Sirgadors
Language: Catalan, Spanish, English, Arabic
Year: 2018
Duration: 72′