Directed by
Julie Dungelhoeff, Catherine Norris Trent, Abdallah Malkawi
Country of Origin
France
Runtime
39:59
In this exceptional documentary, the filmmakers Catherine Norris Trent, Julie Dungelhoeff and Abdallah Malkawi take viewers to the heart of the chaos that is present-day Libya; alternating between the frontlines of the current conflict and the huge, continuing migration crisis unfolding there.
They follow a militia from the Libyan city of Misrata to the frontline of the war, which is taking place among abandoned homes on the southern outskirts of the capital city, Tripoli. They witness first-hand the fragmentation of forces battling eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The filmmakers also gain extremely rare access to a Libyan coastguard operation. They witness the harrowing interception of 126 men, women and children who’ve already spent 18 hours afloat in a migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea. They are forcibly brought back to shore in Tripoli, and in scenes never before captured on camera, the filmmakers document the at times brutal treatment of the migrants, who are left waiting on the dock before being packed off to an already overcrowded detention centre, run by a militia. Our team also gain rare access to one of the few detention centres still under the control of the internationally-recognised Libyan authorities. There, they film asylum seekers locked up in cells nearly 24 hours a day, with no means of communicating with the outside world.
Directors Biography
Catherine Norris Trent is a Senior International Correspondent for the international news channel France 24. She started working for their English language channel in 2007 and since has covered major world news events : the uprisings in the Arab world of 2011, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and Brexit in the UK.She has produced many films in sub-Saharan Africa, notably on the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria and the conflicts in Mali and the Central African Republic. She has also extensively covered the migration route through Libya, her documentary ‘Libya: The Infernal Trap’ winning a One World Media Award in 2020.Catherine was born in the UK and studied at City university in London, going in to work at the BBC, AP, Sky News and ITN before joining France 24.
After having studied International Law and Literature, Julie Dungelhoeff joined France 24 Television in 2011.
She covers national and international news: from The Middle/ Near East and Africa to major electoral and societal issues across the five continents.
In parallel, she has directed several documentaries. In 2013, she investigated the Greek extreme right-wing movement and directed the documentary: “The twilight of Golden Dawn”.
In 2016, Julie co-directed a 26-minute documentary “Burundi à visages cachés” collecting together testimonies of torture in Burundi’s neighbouring countries.
Julie is also preoccupied with environmental issues. In this framework, in 2015 and 2017, she co-directed two short films on the consequences of the drought: “Iran, the severe drought” and “on the way to drought” in Somaliland.
Abdallah Malkawi was born in Jordan where he began his studies in modern languages and communication. He then continued his graduate studies in France in Discourse and Interaction Analysis. He began his journalistic journey writing for the university press as well as national magazines in Jordan. He was subsequently a columnist for several regional radio stations in France, before joining France24 in 2010 as a journalist editor. Since 2011 as reporter and presenter of the TV news.