Ethnographic Film Series

GENDER & CITY

Organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Film Committee and the SOAS Department of Anthropology & Sociology

Wednesday 18 February 1-3pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS Main Building

Other Europe

Rosella Schillaci, 2011, Italy, 75 mins

What happens to African migrants once granted political refugee status?  In Turin, a northern Italian city, an abandoned clinic has been squatted by more than 200 refugees since December 2008.  Khaled, Shukri, and Ali have been travelling through hell in order to arrive in Italy.  They crossed the border and are determined to have a normal life.  Their hopes crash with a life condition “suspended”.   The film follows their stories over the years, showing life in the clinic, the protests of citizenship and the initiatives of the City, until the evacuation of the clinic by the city authorities and the transfer of the refugees to the old barracks.  Three emblematic characters guide us through a story that reveals, intimately, a collective history, a tale of European countries today and their immigration policies, and the changes in the social fabric of European cities (Winner of RAI Film Prize 2011).

For further information on the films please contact: RAI Film Officer, Susanne Hammacher, film@therai.org.uk, or Mahnaz Marashi, SOAS Anthropology Department, mm97@soas.ac.uk