‘The Last Shore’ review: The aftermath of the tragic death of a Gambian migrant

Dir: Jean-Francois Ravagnan. Belgium/France/Qatar. 2024. 71mins

The Final Shore goes past the headlines to reclaim a life misplaced in tragic circumstances. Jean-Francois Ravagnan’s absorbing debut characteristic combines anguished household testimony and mournful photographs to piece collectively the story of Pateh Sabally, a Gambian migrant who drowned in Venice’s Grand Canal in 2017. Pateh’s story is consultant of numerous different migrants, turning the documentary into an elegy for a misplaced technology. Pageant programmers ought to reply to a heartbreaking movie that illuminates and personalises wider world points. 

Depends on deeply felt emotion to make an impression

Ravagnan beforehand labored as a second assistant director (The Child With A Bike, 2011) and a primary assistant director (Playground, 2021) for some notable abilities whereas additionally making his personal shorts, together with Rise (2015) which performed at Locarno. That have reveals in a respectful, empathetic debut characteristic that makes essentially the most of its transient working time.

It begins with cellphone footage from January twenty second 2017, of twenty-two year-old Pateh floundering within the Venice waters. Bystanders hurl racist taunts from the security of their vacationer boats. No one dives in to rescue him, no person alerts the emergency providers. Ultimately lifebelts are thrown, however he sinks beneath the floor and drowns. We by no means see him once more within the documentary. There are not any photographic reminders, no additional footage, no newspaper reviews of the loss of life and its aftermath. Was it suicide? His bodily absence and the thriller surrounding his loss of life are the guiding forces of the documentary.

Ravagnan then shifts the main focus to Gambia, and the village of Dembanding. Pateh’s surviving household really feel his absence acutely. His mom, father and elder brother Yerro share recollections. “On this village, all of the sons left,” explains his mom. Steadily, we study that Pateh had left for Libya, made his technique to Italy after which Malta, securing the odd cleansing job, affected by deteriorating psychological well being. Each step alongside the way in which looks like a stripping away of his humanity till he’s another face within the crowd of migrants heading into Europe. The will to supply a greater life for his household is a purpose that he can’t give up. 

The relations converse of loss, grief and guilt over how Pateh’s life turned out. They’re haunted by questions. How was he dwelling? What was he consuming? The place was he sleeping? Yerro paid for him to go to Libya, and believes he ought to have been the one to go away Gambia. 

Ravagnan performs the uninterrupted household testimonies over bleak photographs. He lets the digital camera linger and brood to emphasize the sensation of absence. Yerro sits staring on the floor as rain falls. Buildings lie in ruins, metropolis streets are abandoned by evening, huge seas stretch in the direction of the horizon, ominous skies hover menacingly. No persons are ever current. Pateh may have seen and skilled all this on his travels. Maybe it’s his ghost that’s revisiting them now. 

Pateh’s story might need been approached as a traditional detective narrative, following his path from Gambia to Libya after which Italy, revisiting the locations he stayed, speaking to these he might need met and interviewing anybody current in Venice on the time of his loss of life. Ravagnan does file the phrases of 1 good friend who shared a flat with Pateh as he fell sick, stopped consuming and “cried on a regular basis”. However. typically, his method is extra summary, counting on deeply felt emotion to make an impression. It’s not the main points of Pateh’s quick life that actually matter however the void left by his mindless loss of life.