“The Righteous of the Mediterranean:” Netflix to Chronicle Italy’s Anti-NGO Rescue Boat Efforts
The Age of Youth
I’ve written more than once on this blog about Italy’s criminalization of NGO Rescue Boats and spotter planes. Before 2015, Italy was an enthusiastic and reliable participant in Mediterranean Sea rescues. But just before we very sensibly elected Donald Trump, a reactionary wave of xenophobia swept through Europe, and Italy became one of most virulently anti-immigration states. Today, Italy continues looking for ways to prevent NGOs from rescuing people floundering in the Mediterranean Sea.
Netflix has started filming a movie in Malta about Italy’s efforts. In 2016, a group of Berliners created an NGO called “Jugend Rettet.” The crazy lads were determined to rescue people in the Mediterranean Sea after EU states drastically reduced their efforts. The German phrase, Jugend Rettet somehow translates to “The Righteous of the Med Sea.” The group used crowdfunding to acquire and launch a rescue boat named “Iuventa,” Latin for “the age of youth.” In less than 18 months, the Iuventa, usually with a crew of just four people at at time, “assisted 175 boats and rescued 23,810 people. It took over 14,000 people on board and treated 4,800 people for dehydration, circulatory failure, hypothermia, chemical burns, pregnancy complications, etc.” It’s amazing that this stuff actually happens in real life and not just in the movies. But the story is well documented by independent observers like Amnesty International and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
Jugend Rettet was so successful and the Italian government so resentful, that Italy seized the Iuventa in August 2017 and charged the crew with human smuggling and conspiracy, charges for which they faced 20 years in prison. The case lingered and the Iuventa remained in quarantine for seven years until early last spring when an Italian Court finally dismissed the charges. The Public Prosecutor admitted, and the Court found that the evidence was wholly lacking and insufficient to sustain the charges. The Court granted observer status to a few international NGOs, providing access to the otherwise closed proceedings. As a result, the proceedings are well documented, as far as I can tell. Sadly, the Iuventa sat impounded and unattended the whole time in the Port of Trapani where is it was plundered and eventually abandoned by the harbor master. It is no longer seaworthy and Jugend Rettet is seeking compensation from the Italian government.
The filmmakers include Oscar winners from Netflix’s previous blockbuster re-telling of All Quiet on the Western Front. It should be a great movie. If you read all the links in this post you can be a jerk and tell your family and friends everything they don’t want or need to know while they try to watch the movie in peace. The Netflix telling will be a dramatization, but another group of filmmakers produced a documentary in 2018. You can view the heartbreaking trailer below. The documentary film is available on Prime Video.
darryll k. jones