(April 3, 2017) “The water is cold. It gets into my bones. I can’t get the water out of the boat. I am using all my strength and my agility, but the motor boat keeps taking in water. And I keep falling. I’m scared. It’s night and it’s cold. We are forty miles from Lampedusa and, if no one can hear me now, I will be left here and it will be the end. I do not want to die like this. Not at sixteen”. These are the opening lines of Lidia Tilotta and Pietro Bartolo’s book titled “Lacrime di sale. La mia storia quotidiana di medico di Lampedusa fra dolore e speranza”. The book is about a boy from a family of fishermen who hard fought to change their destiny and that of his island. Bartolo is the doctor who for over twenty-five years has welcomed migrants in Lampedusa and is also the protagonist of Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary film “Fuocoammare” about the refugee crisis that won the Golden Bear for “Best Documentary” at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2016 in addition to an Oscar nomination the following year for “Best Documentary”. Thanks to joint action between the Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon, the Objectiva publisher of Penguin Random House publishing group and the Portughese film distributor Medeia Filmes; the Portughese translation of Tilotta and Bartolo’s book “Lágrimas de sal” was presented in Lisbon accompanied by a screening of the award-winning documentary by Rosi. Rita Sacramento Monteiro, representative of PAR Plataforma de Apoio aos Refugiados moderated the panel discussion by the two authors. (Red)
