Under Construction @ Keele 2019 summer 2019, vol 5 issue 1 | Page 38

boat off the coast of Lampedusa and Dr Bartolo discussing an image of a refugee covered in
burns from the petrol of the migrants’ boat. The comparison is particularly striking (see figures
3 and 4).
(Figures 3 and 4: Screenshots from Fuocoammare. Rosi, G. 2016)
While the scenes invite the viewer to draw comparisons not only between the European boy
and the refugee but also between the viewer and those in exile, the scenes fail to interrogate
Europe’s selfishness – its centuries-old Eurocentric perspective. Crucially, the image of the
young boy being seasick does not illustrate Europe’s similarities with the experiences of
refugees but rather, functions as a reminder of their differences to the refugee. In this sense,
the comparative images produced by Rosi’s dual narrative are more telling of Europe’s
obsession with itself. Fuocoammare allegedly works under the proposition that the West
needs to recognise itself in an image of suffering in order to care about its ‘others’. The only
productive form of help for Europe’s displaced people by Europeans that we see in the film is
in the shots of Dr Bartolo. Ponzanesi addresses Bartolo’s role in the film and observes that he
is ‘probably the most human and humanitarian character of the film, who has lived through
the history of Lampedusa, helping thousands of migrants’. 35 It is Ponzanesi’s hold onto Dr
Bartolo as the beacon of hope in the film which demonstrates the film’s lack of compassion
35
Ponzanesi, “Of Shipwrecks and Weddings,” 160.
31