Inatteso (2005)

Those who seek political asylum in Italy fear for their very survival. They are forced to wait for several years, are forbidden to work and receive no assistance from the State. They are not provided with lodging, food or information. The refugees set up communes, building shelters, squatting derelict buildings near to centers of agricultural employment and frequently move around according to the harvest season. They survive thanks to their network of solidarity, voluntary organizations and black market work. Starting in Rome where a vast community has squatted the old state railway warehouses next to Tiburtina station, the film traces stopovers in the journey of a nomadic population of asylum seekers who, crossing the Italian peninsula, must head for the centers of seasonal harvesting in order to survive. A geographical exploration of the exile of heroes, deserters and refugees from the wars in post-colonial Africa: the new migrants of Europe.