22/10/2015 - The LUX Prize’s exhibition initiative is holding a simultaneous screening of Jonas Carpignano’s timely film in eight different cities

The LUX Prize and the LUX Film Days, which had their official presentation last week (read the news), are preparing a special event this year, revolving around one of the three finalists for the award – unfortunately, the most timely and urgent one, Jonas Carpignano’s migration tale Mediterranea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Carpignano
film profile]. For the first time, the exhibition initiative will host a simultaneous screening in eight different cities all over Europe.

The film, focusing on the story of the journey undertaken by two men from Burkina Faso to Italy, where they end up in Rosarno, Calabria, during the violent revolt of 2010, will be the centrepiece of the LUX Film Days in Brussels’ BOZAR on 11 November. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with its director, Italian-US filmmaker Carpignano, moderated by Cineuropa editor-in-chief Domenico La Porta. The event will also be live-streamed from the Belgian capital after the simultaneous screenings in Paris (at the Forum des Images), Seville (during the Seville European Film Festival), Bratislava (at the Bratislava Film Festival), Cork (during the Cork Film Festival), Santiago de Compostela (at the Festival Cineuropa), Lisbon (at the CinemaCity Alvalade) and Aarhus (at the Cinema Paradis). The event will be accompanied by a live tweet hosted by ARTE, which the audience will be able to participate in via the #luxprize hashtag. The German-French TV channel, a partner of the screenings, will also stream the event live on its website.

Mediterranea, a film about the migration flows across the Mediterranean Sea, is now searingly topical, especially since the problem has been exacerbated by the Syrian conflict. As our Cannes review points out, “No one is delusional enough to think that they can find a way of controlling migration flows. The agenda set out by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is a good starting point for involving all of the countries of the European Union in an emergency that will continue for years to come. […] Immigration is the hot topic of the moment, making the film perfectly timed.” The LUX Prize wants to turn the spotlight on the topic tackled by the film, as it is certainly one at the heart of European public debate.

Besides focusing on Mediterranea, Brussels will also welcome the other two LUX Prize finalists, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile] (right before the Mediterranea screening, on 11 November) and Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s The Lesson [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Val…
interview: Margita Gosheva
film profile] (on 10 November). Through the LUX Film Days, the three films will be watched and voted for by audiences not only from Brussels, but from all across Europe, until the awards ceremony on 24 November in Strasbourg.