COUNTRECOURANT

Four stories of four young people who decided to stay in Mali and Senegal despite the difficulties to pursue a life project in their native countries. Contrecourant is a multi-episode documentary filmed by Andrea de Georgio, journalist and West Africa expert, and Michele Cattani, photo and video reporter, in 2021 between Bamako and Dakar.

Credits

Directed by: Andrea de Georgio.

Photography: Michele Cattani.

Editing: Dario Fortunato.

Animation (oil painting on frame): Gianluca Lo Presti.

Original music: Electric Circus.

STORIE INTERROTTE

TALES FROM THE BORDER BETWEEN

EUROPE AND THE SAHEL

https://storieinterrotte.it

https://www.internazionale.it/tag/storie-interrotte

EPISODE 1

In the Kayes region, a rural area of Mali that produces more than 80% of Malian migrants to Europe. In these sunburnt lands, almost all the women we meet are wives, mothers or sisters of migrants who have decided to take the 'adventure road' to improve their families' economic condition. For some time now, however, the departure of men is no longer enough. So many young unmarried girls, like Fatoumata, aware of the enormous risks they are taking, pluck up courage and plan to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, uncles and brothers to try to reach the European dream. Agriculture, the region's main economic activity, has been compromised in recent years by climate change and the weak automation of work in the fields. Rain here is increasingly scarce due to the indiscriminate cutting down of trees for domestic use , reducing harvests and making life in the Sahel even harder and with no alternative to mass emigration.

EPISODE 2

In the village of Sambacanou, where every development project is financed by the diaspora installed in Europe: schools, dispensaries, wells, mosques. The people of Sambacanou can only count on funds sent by relatives who have migrated abroad. The young people, dream of following the course set by their fathers. Now to avoid taking the 'desert and sea route' they have to pay dearly for visas on the black market, thanks to corrupt intermediaries from European embassies. Lassanà is a young student from Sambacanou. The nearest high school is many kilometres away, so, like many teenagers in the village, he has moved to relatives in the capital Bamako to pursue his studies. After classes he calls his older cousins in France on whatsapp. "Is it cold? Is it snowing?" He is well aware of the dangers and difficulties of both the journey and today's Europe.

But he has no doubts: "As soon as I finish high school, I too will leave."

EPISODE 3

In 2018, around five thousand people crossed the Italian-French border via Bardonecchia and the Colle della Scala, while at least three people died on the crossing due to hypothermia or because they got lost or fell into a crevasse.

In the first months of 2019, the Colle della Scala pass seems less frequented by migrants, despite there being less snow than in 2018. Instead, every night between ten and fifteen people are rescued on the paths connecting Claviere, Italy, to the Montgenèvre pass in France.

In most cases, the French gendarmerie stops them and takes them back to the Italian side, but after a few days they try again to cross the border crossing.

PUNTO A CAPO

“An overturned trip, from North to South; flowing from Italy to Mali, social and cultural crossroad within the subsaharian Africa.
An immersive documentary that combines the stories of migrants expelled from Europe with a reverse journey from the mediterranean doorsteps, through the golden dunes of the Sahara, deep down to villages dispersed in the bronzed earth of Sahel.
A personal insight on an overturned route, revisiting the boundary between traveler and migrant”.

(VR headset and headphones are highly recommended)

Michele Cattani - Mattia Bertolini