Trailer for New Migrant Film Launched

The trailer has been released for the forthcoming short film The Dead Sea which exploring the abuses suffered, privations and humanitarian issues for migrants travelling to Europe from North Africa. Often harrowing and touching on subjects of abuse, torture and sexual violence set against a background of impunity from justice, the trailer gives the viewer a taste of the forthcoming film.

The Dead Sea follows a group of refugees returned to Libya after almost reaching Europe. The film stars Sope Dirisu, Joan Iyiola and Yasen Atour and is written and directed by Stuart Gatt of 6th International Films.

“The Dead Sea deals with a very current and horrifying reality that faces thousands of refugees on a daily basis,” said Gatt. “The principle of Non-Refoulement, which forbids a victim being returned to their persecutor, is being treated as a remedial course of action for refugees trying to reach Europe from Libya, as affirmed by a recent statement from David Cameron. We put the audience amongst a group of refugees who have suffered the same fate and are subsequently exposed to the horrors of a Libyan Detention Centre.”

Producers Tabitha Breese and Kate Glover both provided further  insight into the film with Breese commenting “Recreating a Libyan detention center in a community space in Brixton was no mean feat, but the joint effort from the art, lighting, camera and sound departments transformed the space. It was important to us to draw attention to an aspect of the refugee crisis so often overlooked by mainstream media.”

Glover said: “In the current climate of media over saturation it is easy to forget about the individual stories, we wanted to make the film The Dead Sea to help humanize the refugee crisis and ensure people understood the variety of reasons why we need to help refugees rather than judge and criticize them.”

CEO Human Rights at Sea, David Hammond, has supported the release of the film trailer. Hammond says: “From the moment the producers contacted us and showed us their concept we were convinced to support this young and talented team in producing a short film that is both highly topical and yet tragic at the same time. We look forward to the release of the full-length film and urge people to watch it in due course.”