In the mountains of northern Morocco, in a forest called Gourougou overlooking the Spanish enclave of Melilla, hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants live in makeshift camps, waiting for a chance to jump a heavily militarised barrier and enter Europe. Some have been waiting months. Some have been waiting years. The Land Between, a new documentary by David Fedele, is the most intimate portrait of their lives yet committed to film.
Fedele — an Australian filmmaker who works alone, self-producing and self-funding his projects — gained unprecedented access to the migrant community in Gourougou, documenting daily life in the camp alongside the extreme violence and mistreatment meted out by both Moroccan and Spanish authorities. The result is a film that asks the most fundamental of questions: why are people prepared to risk everything — their safety, their family, their lives — in search of a different future? The answers it offers are not comfortable ones.
The film has screened at festivals across five continents and won numerous awards, including Best Feature-length Documentary at the FIFE International Environmental Film Festival in Paris, Best Film at the Naples Human Rights Film Festival, Best Film at the Festival of Migrant Film in Ljubljana, and Best Film at the Lampedusa In Festival — a particularly resonant honour given that the small Italian island is one of the main entry points to Europe for migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat. The Festival of Migrant Film jury described it as not only an excellent film but a political catalyst that unsettles the viewer and turns empathy into anger — the sort of anger that brings the anticipation of change.
David Fedele is a close friend and long-time collaborator of Dancing Turtle. In a political climate in which the movement of people across borders has become one of the defining issues of our time, The Land Between is essential viewing. It’s available to stream in HD through the Dancing Turtle store.
