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THE EXHIBITION

The sky belongs to everyone. From Lampedusa to Venice, one year with the protagonists of the film On the bride’s side.
The set pictures taken between the 14th and the 18th of november 2013 and the pictures taken during the 71st Venice international film festival in september 2014, represent the travel diary of the 5 syrian protagonists of On the bride’s side (the documentary-film that has become an unexpected cinema success in 2014) from the dilapidated boat which they have reached Lapedusa with, to the water taxi in Venice where they have been welcomed like heroes.

THE CONTEXT

An estimated 9 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the war in March 2011. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 3 million have fled to Syria’s immediate neighbours Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. 6.5 million are internally displaced within Syria.
In the European Union, only 150,000 Syrians and Palestinian-Syrians sought asylum. At least 50,000 of them turned to Libyan and Egyptian smugglers to be ferried across the Mediterranean on dilapidated boats, since their passports are worthless in European embassies.
In most of the cases Italy is just a transit country. Their objective is Northern Europe and particularly Sweden. So, after reaching Sicily, they continue their journey from Milan, by car, resorting yet again to smugglers. Current immigration laws give them no alternative.

from boat to boat. On the left a picture taken from a cellphone during the ‘voyage of hope’ of two of the protagonists of the film, on the right the 5 syrians aboard of a taxi-boat in the Venice lagoon on the way to the thatre. Same sea, two different stories.

ON THE BRIDE’S SIDE SYNOPSIS

A Palestinian poet and an Italian journalist meet five Palestinians and Syrians in Milan who entered Europe via the Italian island of Lampedusa after fleeing the war in Syria. They decide to help them complete their journey to Sweden – and hopefully avoid getting themselves arrested as traffickers – by faking a wedding. With a Palestinian friend dressed up as the bride and a dozen or so Italian and Syrian friends as wedding guests, they cross halfway over Europe on a four-day journey of three thousand kilometres. This emotionally charged journey not only brings out the stories and hopes and dreams of the five Palestinians and Syrians and their rather special traffickers, but also reveals an unknown side of Europe – a transnational, supportive and irreverent Europe that ridicules the laws and restrictions of the Fortress in a kind of masquerade which is no other than the direct filming of something that really took place on the road from Milan to Stockholm from the 14th to the 18th of November 2013.

ONE YEAR LATER ON THE BRIDE’S SIDE has become a cinema success!

The film has been welcomed at the 71st Venice International Film Festival with a 17 minutes standing ovation and 3 awards (Fedic, Human Rights Nights, social critic).
Over 100.000 spectators in 12 weeks, screenings in cinemas of 228 cities around the Country.
Behind this case lies a true experiment: the movie has been both ditributed to cinemas and made available for viewings at associations events at the same time.
The international distribution has started this January: Amsterdam, Brussels, Massegno, Luzern, Dubai, Amman, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Oslo, Helsinki, Gothenburg, Stuttgart, San Bartolome de Las Casas, Zagreb, Tangiers, Beirut, shortly United States and Canada will be added to the list.
We have no news of on going criminal investigations so far. Actually, reporting against us would rebound. Our legals are ready, and so are we!