The Documentary
The documentary film ȊUVENTA relates the events of a crucial year in the lives of a group of young Europeans all involved in different ways in the Jugend Rettet humanitarian project, starting from the first voyage of the ȊUVENTA ship in the Mediterranean Sea to the heavy accusations that led to the seizure of the vessel more than a year later. The backbone of the narration is the ship’s first trip out to sea: setting sail from Malta, she comes back to La Valletta after 15 days offshore, having saved the lives of over 2,000 people. After the first mission the film takes us to Berlin and in Italy in the months following the first voyage, through the winter time when the future of the Jugend Rettet is discussed. The film, precisely because of the particularly young age of its protagonists, becomes the tale of a sort of training period: finding themselves at the forefront of this horror and death, and conscious of the vastness and complexities of the correlated socio-political problems, these youngsters start having doubts about the sense of the whole project which, it appears, determines in some way the loss of their innocence.TIMELINE↗
On 31 October 2014 the operation Mare Nostrum is shut down. On the night of 18 April 2015, off the coast of Libya, a ship carrying about 900 people is the victim of a tragic shipwreck, the numbers are chilling: 28 survivors, 58 confirmed victims and between 700 and 900 missing people. Reading of the tragedy, Jakob, a 19-year-old German student decides at that moment that it is mandatory to do something, turning his head to the other side for him and his friends is no longer an option. Thus, in reaction to one of the most dramatic tragedies of recent years in the Mediterranean Sea, the NGO Jugend Rettet is born from the idea of a group of young students, to carry out the necessary humanitarian work that Europe is no longer doing on its borders.
After a long crowdfunding campaign and about 8 months’ search for the right sort of boat, the 10 students who founded Jugend Rettet are finally fixing up the old fishing boat renamed ȊUVENTA. Shortly they will be leaving Germany to travel towards Malta that will be the operating base for the rescue missions.
On June 29th 2016 the news that ȊUVENTA is finally operational and is traveling from Germany to Malta reaches Italy and is published by various newspapers. Reading about the utopian idea of Jugend Rettet Director Michele Cinque immediately feels that this would be the subject of his next film and decides, without any preparation, to leave for Malta to join the crew. Three days later he manages to embark on the first rescue mission of the ȊUVENTA.
Preparations are in full swing during the last days before the first mission sets off. We meet Jakob, the founder of Jugend Rettet, who describes the sense of the whole project and the captain of the boat, Benedict, who illustrates the route they will take.
On the night of the 24th July 2016 at last the ȊUVENTA leaves the port of Malta for the first mission called Solidarity. 16 days of operations at sea are planned, and about 7,000 litres of diesel will be needed to travel 1,200 nautical miles.
On the 2nd August, the ȊUVENTA rescued 249 people who were aboard two rubber dinghies clearly in difficulty. Despite the presence of military ships, the ȊUVENTA was requested for the first time by the IMRCC to head towards Lampedusa to carry out the transfer. Given the difficulties caused by adverse weather conditions and lack of provisions on board, the units CP312 and CP324 of the Italian Coastguard were sent.
On the 15th August 2016, during the second mission, the ȊUVENTA sights a rubber dinghy in international waters, overloaded with migrants. The rescue mission authorized by the IMRCC is coordinated with the Seawatch RIB. The situation suddenly becomes critical when one side of the rubber dinghy collapses. Thanks to the swift intervention of the ȊUVENTA and Seawatch crews all the migrants are rescued. (Viewing of these images is not recommended for sensitive people).
Cesar Dezfuli is working on a photographic project, going round the reception centres in Italy, meeting some of the people rescued during the ȊUVENTA’s first mission. He meets up with three of them at the Hotel Colibrì in Biella.
After 3 months of maintenance work on March 09th the ȊUVENTA sets off for the first mission of 2017. In Italy, since February 2017, NGOs are at the center of all kind of accusations and insinuations made by public opinion and politics. Despite this, the mission involves young volunteers from all over Europe and concludes by saving 110 people. Photos by Federico Sutera.
During the 7-year criminal case against the ȊUVENTA crew the ship was seized, abandoned, plundered and destroyed. The ȊUVENTA crew has filed a criminal compaint denouncing its destruction while in Italian custody callenghing the impunity of lawfare.
Passengers↗
Photography by César Dezfuli
On 1st August 2016, 118 people were rescued from a rubber boat drifting in the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off from the Libyan coast. One more of the hundreds of boats that have been rescued from this migratory route in the past years. Only in 2016, when historical records were beaten, 181.436 migrants were rescued safe, while 4.576 lost their lives at sea.
But who is behind these numbers? What is the identity of the victims and survivors of this journey?
In an attempt to put name and face to this reality, to humanise this tragedy, I carry out this work of documentation composed of 118 portraits of all the people who traveled on board the same boat, taken minutes after their rescue, once on board of the rescue vessel ȊUVENTA, from the search and rescue NGO Jugend Rettet. Their faces, their looks, the marks on their body, their clothes or the absence of it... reflect the mood and physical state in which they are in a moment that has already marked their lives forever. Documenting it can serve to bring this migration reality closer to those who only observe it from a distance.
Here are the protagonist and passengers of that rescue, that one more rescue, that took place in the Mediterranean Sea on 1st August 2016.
On 1st August 2016, 118 people were rescued from a rubber boat drifting in the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off from the Libyan coast. One more of the hundreds of boats that have been rescued from this migratory route in the past years. Only in 2016, when historical records were beaten, 181.436 migrants were rescued safe, while 4.576 lost their lives at sea.
But who is behind these numbers? What is the identity of the victims and survivors of this journey?
In an attempt to put name and face to this reality, to humanise this tragedy, I carry out this work of documentation composed of 118 portraits of all the people who traveled on board the same boat, taken minutes after their rescue, once on board of the rescue vessel ȊUVENTA, from the search and rescue NGO Jugend Rettet. Their faces, their looks, the marks on their body, their clothes or the absence of it... reflect the mood and physical state in which they are in a moment that has already marked their lives forever. Documenting it can serve to bring this migration reality closer to those who only observe it from a distance.
Here are the protagonist and passengers of that rescue, that one more rescue, that took place in the Mediterranean Sea on 1st August 2016.
ȊUVENTA 10
ȊUVENTA-crew free of all charges!
After a seven-year odyssey, the ȊUVENTA Crew hold the final documents of the trial,the longest, most expensive and most extensive criminal proceedings ever initiated against sea rescue organisations – and it ended with more than just an acquittal!
On the 19th of April 2024 the court not only dropped the charges against the ȊUVENTA Crew but recognised the legitimacy of the escape from Libyan detention camps and drew the important and long overdue conclusion: escape assistance is ‘actually’ necessary!
A film by Michele Cinque
Editing
Piero Lassandro
Cinematography
Michele Cinque
Martina Cocco
Music
Hackedepicciotto
Sound Design and Mix
Giuseppe D’Amato
Giancarlo Rutigliano
Executive Producers
Christof Brüning
Michele Cinque
Ognjen Dizdarevic
René Frotscher
Production Designer
Valerio Ciampicacigli
Producers
Thomas Jeschner
Volker Zobelt
Luca Pancaldi
Writing Consultant
Marco Saura
Production Consultant Italy
Fabio Parente
Photography
César Dezfuli
Sound Recordings
Fabio Fortunati
Alessandro Leonardi
Giandomenico Petillo
Malte Audick
Jakob Mäsel
Sound Postproduction
Timeline Studio
Sound Editing
Antonio Giannantonio
Foley Artist
Marco Ciorba
Gopro Footage
Flo Stadler
Additional Footage
Giulia Bertolazzi
Tommaso Gandini
Matteo Keffer
Lukas Steinbach
Roberto Salinas
Assistant Editors
Martina Ghezzi
Giacomo Villa
Leo Franke
Translations and Editing Coordination
Charlotte Marie Kretschmer
Title Design
Adriano Mestichella
Visual Postproduction
Cine Plus
Color Grading
Martin Szafranek
NEWS
.10 . ȊUVENTA is available in Italy on @Raiplay! .04 . After a seven-year odyssey, the ȊUVENTA trial is finally over and all charges against the ȊUVENTA crew have been dropped. .03 . Thanks to SIAE "Per Chi Crea" in May 2020 ȊUVENTA will dock in Australia and New Zealand. .02 . ȊUVENTA 10 has been awarded with the Amnesty International Human Right Prize. .11 . Official Selection 12th Festival de Cine Italiano de Madrid .11 . SCREENING – From 13-14 November at Cinema Conca Verde, Bergamo, Italy .11 . Screening in Berlin on Nov. 5th at Kino Moviemento with Michele Cinque-director and Theresa Leingang- ȊUVENTA crew .11 . Thanks to Siae and Mibact in November 2019 ȊUVENTA will tour in India with screenings in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. .11 . ȊUVENTA has been awarded by SIAE "PER CHI CREA" international distribution fund! .11 . ȊUVENTA in Athens at Festival Moviement on 02.11.19 .04 . ȊUVENTA is available on Amazon on demand! .04 . 11.04.19 ȊUVENTA arrives to the University of Chicago for a special screening .04 . Screening at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa at the presence of Michele Cinque and Lorenzo Pezzani from Forensic Architecture .04 . SCREENING – in Genova at ARCI Barabini di Trasta on 05.04 .04 . SCREENING – In November at PostModernissimo, Perugia, Italy .03 . ȊUVENTA is invited in Italian Budding Filmmaker Film Festival 2019 in Delhi on 10/04! .03 . ȊUVENTA is back in New York for a special screening at NYU on 29/03 .09 . SCREENING – From the 2nd November, Cinéma Sala Pegasus, Spoleto, Italy .09 . SCREENING – In October, La Cappella Underground, Trieste, Italy .09 . SCREENING – Apollo Undici, 18:45, 29th September, Rome, Italy .09 . SCREENING – Sabir Festival, 20:00, 13th October, Palermo, Italy .09 . SCREENING – Wanted Clan, 20:00, 27th September, Milan, Italy .09 . SCREENING – Cinema Farnese, 25th September, Rome, Italy .07 . International Human Right Film Festival (IHRFF) 2018, Tirana, Albania, 17th-22nd September 2018 .07 . Official selection – in competition at SalinaDocFest 2018, Salina, Italy, 13th-15th September 2018
.06 . On July 10th starts the German Cine Tour with our distributor Farb Film and many of the protagonists. .06 . SCREENING – July 7th, Lampedusa, in collaboration with Forum Lampedusa Solidale, Italy .06 . ȊUVENTA was awarded at Biografilm 2018 with Guerrilla Staff Award and two special mentions .06 . ȊUVENTA will be screened at Fusion Festival Berlin on July 1st. Far away from daily life Fusion seeks to create a wondrous parallel society. Soon updates on the German tour!
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.06 . ȊUVENTA will be screened at La Repubblica delle Idee in Bologna, on Sunday 10 June 2018, the Kermesse organized by Repubblica where one wonders about the future with so many important guests. .06 . ȊUVENTA has been officially selected at 14th Biografilm festival, celebration of lives. The festival will be held in Bologna from June 1st till June 24th 2018.
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.05 . Forensic Architecture, an independent research agency, based at Goldsmiths, University of London has published a counter investigation of the events leading to the seizure of the ȊUVENTA. The results cast a new light over the ȊUVENTA case.
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SCREENINGS(see past)
PAST SCREENINGS(close)
INTERVIEWS
THE CRIME OF RESCUE
SHOP
ȊUVENTA Film DVD20€ BUY
Lenght: 89’20’'
Video format: PAL 2:39
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek
Extra contents: The Crime of Rescue by Forensic Architecture and Forensic Oceanography and many more
Distributor: Goodfellas
Cover design: Tommaso Guerra
Lenght: 89’20’'
Video format: PAL 2:39
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek
Extra contents: The Crime of Rescue by Forensic Architecture and Forensic Oceanography and many more
Distributor: Goodfellas
Cover design: Tommaso Guerra