Nameless people, men and women on the margins of society, or migrants shipwrecked in the Mediterranean. For years, Dr. Cristina Cattaneo and the Labanof of Milan have been trying to give it back an identity. And with it a dignity. This is also what the film “Pure Strangers” which will be released on March 14th tells us
Homeless people, runaway teenagers, prostitutes and, in recent years, especially migrants shipwrecked in the Mediterranean Sea. Unnamed people who arrive every day in the Forensic Anthropology and Odontology Laboratory of the State University (Labanof) led by Cristina Cattaneo. Which tries to give them back an identity and, with it, a dignity as a person. This is what the documentary says “Pure strangers“, by Valentina Cicogna and Mattia Colombo, forthcoming in Italian cinemas on March 14th. The film immerses us not only in the work, but also in Professor Cattaneo’s political struggle to push the countries of the European Union to collaborate to systematize the identification of each person. A very powerful film, it forcefully highlights how important it is to restore an identity to unknown bodies, which still bear the signs of a true story. We talked about it with one of the two directors.
Mattia Colombo, how did the idea for “Pure strangers” come about?
«Valentina Cicogna, with whom we made it, a few years ago, was writing a fiction film with another director and had to develop an autopsy scene. For this reason she went to the morgue in Milan where she met Cristina Cattaneo, who gave her the books that she had written: among these there was one dedicated precisely to the nameless dead. We started talking about it a little vaguely. Then her partner had the great intuition: “There’s a film here!” ».
Did you immediately think about making a film about Cristina Cattaneo?
“No not at all. At the beginning we were attracted by the idea of making a film that made us reflect on the concept of identity and also by the laboratory itself, therefore not only by Cattaneo’s character, but by the synergy of all the people who work there. Another thing that stimulated us from a stylistic point of view was working on fragments. We found that the work of Cristina and her team was a bit similar to what we do as documentary makers, that is, starting from small fragments, from clues, and thanks to these reconstructing a person’s story. Then, getting to know Cristina Cattaneo more and more, even on a human level, the camera went very naturally on her, because everything revolved around her. In general this is how I do with all my films, I start with an idea and explore a world, trying to be very open and see what it gives me back, where it takes me.”
In the film, however, there is not only her as a character, but also her political struggle…
«Cristina is also trying to make the political world understand that giving an identity to those bodies is fundamental. She embodies this struggle and it was clear at a certain point in production that the film would have to tell about it. This is also why it is very difficult to separate Cristina from her struggle. In fact, we love to repeat that “Pure Strangers” is not a film about her, but with her. Cattaneo takes the viewer into the very complex world of forensic medicine and also the technical-scientific lexicon to understand how the laboratory works, what the difficulties and risks are, and why all this is important. The journey that the spectator takes is a bit like the journey that we too have taken. And it was Cattaneo who accompanied us, also showing us the strong ethics and sense of duty that distinguishes her. You really think that the work of forensic medicine has a social value, both with regards to the most heinous crimes and the deaths in the Mediterranean. In reality they themselves are victims of a heinous crime, of mass massacres, for which not only traffickers and smugglers are responsible. In one way or another, international politics is responsible for it.”
The only moments in which we discover a side of Cristina Cattaneo’s personal life are some very short moments with her dogs. Was it a specific choice?
«We decided to give space to Cristina’s professional and working life. It was a choice made together with her but of which the two of us were firmly convinced, because we wanted to tell that part of her. In Italy there is very little talk about women who strongly believe in their profession and who dedicate body and soul to a job that they have chosen and carry forward. We wanted to narrate the story of the professional Cristina Cattaneo. The choice of the dogs was certainly dictated in part by the need to include moments where the public could empathize with her a little, but above all we wanted to make people understand the profound loneliness that in my opinion she experiences and which is not an emotional loneliness, but in its political battle. She is the bullshit she pushes, who leads her team, who knocks on a lot of doors, who tries to convince governments and nations that identifying people is very important. In this part of her work she is quite alone, and she is alone like all great leaders. I’m sorry to use a masculine term to talk about her, but she is a great leader.”
The film never explains the reason for his struggle beyond his personal ethics. Is this a question you’ve asked yourself?
«Before becoming a medical lawyer, Cristina Cattaneo was an archaeologist, and she often says that by studying how the dead are treated you learn a lot. But in a general way she doesn’t clearly explain why she does this job. But perhaps it is also nice to give viewers the opportunity to create their own story and imagine why Cristina chose this job.”
The film somehow represents the “missing piece” of the narrative on migration in Italian cinema. I captain talks about the journey, Fuocoammare told of the arrivals. Your documentary tells the story of the beyond…
“Exact. The film focuses on the people who, sadly, didn’t make it. In one way or another it is a somewhat new point of view, and it complements other narratives. I captain e Fuocoammare they largely concern people who arrive alive. The migration issue is very urgent and obviously the way in which we must worry and take care of those who arrive on the Italian, Greek or Maltese coasts is very important, as our film and Cattaneo herself says in a lesson. However, we must not forget that caring for people who die at sea also means caring for people who are still alive and who have lost their relatives. Cristina heard herself repeat many times, and so did we while we were looking for allies for the film, “but why make a film about dead migrants, when we need to worry about the living ones?”. But the cinematography on these is very rich, especially in the world of documentaries, for example on reception centres, on how politics works poorly, on how there is racism. It is right to continue doing them, because it is a topic that must always be brought to light. But we continue to talk too little about dead migrants and how this causes suffering to families and those who survive.”
The film comes out in Italy on March 14. What do you expect?
«Together with Cristina Cattaneo, our hope is that this film can become a tool to break down the doors that over the years have been resistant or completely closed in the face of humanitarian appeals. We always wanted to make a film that could help make audiences understand why it’s important to identify bodies. The idea is that the film can raise debates, and therefore go around for public screenings. We want these events to also become moments of discussion with political figures, intellectuals or representatives of NGOs, in order to solicit responses at a political level. We are trying to make projections in the European Parliament, in the Vatican, at the Quirinale, which reach the eyes of politicians directly. We think that our film can stimulate reflections in society. The objective is also to arrive at a law that forces all European states to identify the bodies: now it is mandatory to do so only if a crime has been committed. If the traffickers of a shipwreck are immediately identified and then tried and imprisoned, there is no need, from a legal point of view, to identify the dead, who are therefore completely forgotten. Furthermore, we would like to bring to Milan the “Barca Nostra'” boat that is seen in the film, and which is currently rotting in Sicily. We would like to ensure that it is displayed as some sort of memorial. Cristina Cattaneo recently founded the University Museum of Anthropological, Medical and Forensic Sciences for Human Rights (MUSA), which addresses and explains very well what it means to identify, and why it is important to do so. The boat could become a sort of monument of this part on identification. Moving the boat obviously has a cost, so we’ll try to do a campaign and some sort of crowdfunding».