by Dagmawi Yimer, 2015 (17’23”)
A video to commemorate the victims of the disaster that occurred on October 3, 2013, off the coast of Lampedusa. Its intention is to force the institutions and civil society, in the words of the director, to “name each and every one, to make us aware of how many names lost their bodies on one single day, in the Mediterranean sea”.
Nomi senza corpi (Names without bodies)
“On October 3, 2013, many young people with names such as Selam (peace) or Tesfaye (my hope), left us all at the same time.
“Naming our children is a way of telling the world about our hopes, our dreams, our beliefs, or about the people and things we respect. We choose meaningful names for our children, just as our parents did for us.
“For years these names, and their load of flesh and blood, have left their birthplaces, going far from home, composing something like a written message, a message that has reached the threshold of the Western world. These names have defied manmade boundaries and laws, have disturbed and challenged African and European governments.
“If we can understand why and how these names fell so far away from their meaning, we might be able to transmit an endless message to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
“Although the bodies they belonged to are gone, those names linger on because they have been spoken and continue to live even though they are removed from their human constraint. Deafened by a chaos of poisoned words, we can’t hear them. But those syllables are alive because they have been inscribed in the cosmos.
“The film’s images give space to these names without bodies. They are meaningful names although it might be difficult for us to grasp their meaning.
“It is necessary for us to count them all, name each and every one, to make us aware of how many names lost their bodies on one single day, in the Mediterranean sea”.
(Dagmawi Yimer)