The turbulent waters of Mediterranean close to the Libyan coast was the setting of a horrifying abduction of a mother, her two-month-old daughter, and young son. It was during the night when Geo Barents, a rescue ship run by Doctors Without Borders, was fraught in rescuing a group of migrants struggling in a rubber boat. Libyan militias mounted in their own watercraft hastily surfaced and meddled in between without warning, causing a panic-stricken scrimmage in the middle of the unsecured waters.
Some of these distressed migrants jumped into the waters, swam, and made it to Geo Barents; others were seized by the militia. Hani, who made it to the rescue ship, was devastated to learn that his wife, Roro, and their two children, were among those kidnapped.
That same night, Dr. Sine Plambech, Danish Anthropologist, Film Director, Author, and Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, was accompanying the rescuers and standing at Geo Barents. She personally witnessed the whole incident while capturing them on film. This turned out to be a night of reckoning for Plambech’s latest documentary feature film, “Rescue”, which recently held its world premiere at TIFF51.
As a multi-awarded film documentarian, Plambech’s sheer dedication to research, filmmaking, and social justice movements on the rights of migrants and women are evidently displayed in “Rescue.”
Throughout the film, Plambech chronicles everything from the kidnapping incident, rescue attempts, and seeking justice. She highlighted Roro’s unrelenting quest to be reunited with her husband, no matter the consequences. While in captivity, Roro documented the abuse, pain, and sadness, notwithstanding the danger and uncertainty if she and her children will ever survive.
In a recent one-on-one interview during TIFF51, Plambech articulated that she wanted to shed light on a mass crisis confronting migrants in the Mediterranean.
…“I’ve been working with migration for the past 20 years, making films about migration in particular, women’s migration, but this time, I wanted to make a film that had an even more urgency around it. Like the situation of people drowning in the Mediterranean, the situation of border politics; and I knew that it would be a crucial place to film it from the point of view of being at sea”…
It all emerged when Plambech was sailing between the Libyan coast and the European coast with members of “Doctors Without Borders” in their rescue ship, Geo Barents.
…“I started out just knowing that I wanted to put my camera, me and my cinematographer, on a rescue ship in the Mediterranean…when we witnessed the kidnapping at sea. I was standing on the Geo Barents… I was filming from the mothership, the big rescue ship, and my photographer was in the rip. And right in front of my camera… they’re kidnapping the women…this is the story I wanna tell…we documented a human rights violation in real time. That was when I knew the story was there”…
As a seasoned academic researcher and film director, Plambech underscored the importance of telling Roro’s story in “Rescue”.
…“I really want people to get to know Roro and get to know women like her and understand that to migrate, to be a refugee, to move to a safer place in your life, is very different as seen from a woman’s perspective…I was raised by a feminist mother and she always taught me to…look out for the women’s perspective…so I guess I have intuitively got that perspective”…
Plambech further elaborated why the film focused on Roro.
…“That’s why the film is called “Rescue”…It’s her rescuing her children and herself … I want to show that female power, that the stories of women as migrants and refugees are not just about victimhood and someone who’s suffering and don’t know what to do…I never met anyone as strong as Roro… really a powerful woman”…
For Plambech, “Rescue” has become more personal and meaningful. She is cognizant of the fact that her film had tackled an urgent issue that the world needs to pay attention to.
…“I think it is so important to show when we document human rights violations to see how people are trying to fight against it …and try to seek justice…you might not get the justice that you want, but…people are not just passively accepting the things that they went through. So that is also the path of our storytelling, not only the violation but also how people are trying to fight back”…
Undoubtedly, the political implications of “Rescue” cannot be disregarded after watching the film. According to Plambech, …“it’s not possible to make a film about migration and refugees without being political…human rights violations that we documented in “Rescue” are widely documented in Libya by researchers, by NGOs, even by the EU Parliament…the billions of euros that are being sent to North African countries to act as Europe’s border guard is also funding a system of militias… at the same time, it’s also Europe that she(Roro) wants to go to and seek justice at International Criminal Court…it’s also Europe that we, at least, throughout history, have praised ourselves to be the guardians of human values and humanity and human rights…border politics hits in very intimate ways for women”…
When asked about her next project after “Rescue”, Plambech’s reply was imbued with a solidity of intent.
…“the world changes and develops and new issues come up there all the time…I still want to facilitate in telling these stories that we really hear…being an anthropologist and talking with all these people, the stories…are there…asking to be told. So we’ll see which one is the next one to be told”… ####