But Now Is Perfect

But Now Is Perfect

Directed by Carin Goeijers
Italy, Netherlands | 2018 | Documentary
55 minutes | English, French & Italian

On the run from an arranged marriage with an elderly man, Becky arrives in Europe — via Libya — from her native country of Nigeria. Becky could scarcely have dreamed that she would find herself in Riace, a mountain village in Southern Italy’s Calabria region — a town that has become world famous because of flamboyant Mayor Domenico Lucano’s open-door policy for immigrants. Through the eyes of Becky and her fellow villagers, “But Now Is Perfect” documents how the aging members of the shrinking Italian community embrace the new, mostly African arrivals, with close friendships forming and lives becoming increasingly connected. But the idyll doesn’t last: Unhappy with the Riace project, the regional authorities exert political pressure on the mayor, who can no longer protect the immigrants he welcomed. Forced to leave the village, Becky ends up in an illegal immigrant camp, and her terrible fate leaves the inhabitants of Riace grieving and bewildered.

Shown with

Makun (Don't Cry)

30 minutes
Spanish
Emilio Martí
2019

Supplemented by the testimony of immigrants and human-rights activists, the stories of those confined in a Canary Islands immigrant detention center are told through the drawings on its walls.

Spain
This film is playing as a part of