A Syrian mother and her two children board an overcrowded rubber dinghy to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece. As the boat takes on water and the motor fails, the mother must make impossible decisions about survival — decisions that no parent should ever have to face.
Editorial Perspective
Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf’s Mare Nostrum — named after the Roman term for “Our Sea” — strips the refugee crisis to its most elemental drama: water, wind, and the terrible arithmetic of an overloaded boat. The film refuses to look away from the physical reality of the crossing, and its power comes from this unflinching attention to detail — the sound of water sloshing, the weight of wet clothing, the smallness of children against the vastness of the sea.
Where to Watch
Available through select documentary and human rights film platforms. Screens regularly at refugee-focused festivals.
Historical data reconstructed from archive.org snapshots of the Manhattan Short Film Festival website.
