Caina - How is the humanitarian crisis translated in films

Based on the novel of neapolitan writer Davide Morganti, later turned into a play, Caina
presents a disturbing over the top vision of the refugee crisis in Italy that can translate
worldwide.
The tragic portraits that go beyond the comfort zone of most have found a place in the festival
circuit, a category of their own almost, with After Spring in Tribeca, Fire at Sea in Berlin and
Cannes, or the interactive documentary, Refugee Republic amongst many others.

As the Mediterranean has turned into the sea of lost souls with over 12000 counted for deaths in
the past decade, the subject is challenging and evoking for the stories to be told.

This time we travel to Italy, in a chilling dystopian (near) future dominated by hate, misery and
loathing of the other. Caina, a former assassin works as a corpse collector of the refugees that
she despises, battling with illegal collectors. The bodies are sold to a company ran by a
terrifying old woman, where they get turned into cement.

Matriarchy is strongly represented in Stefano Amatucci’s first feature, an interesting choice for
the brutal nature depicted.
Caina, played by Luisa Amatucci is a cold blooded killer that feeds out of her racism,
xenophobia, and a visceral violent hate of everything that is not of ‘pure rase’.
She practices, in her opinion, an ethnic cleans and recurrently goes to church to brutally rant to
her priest about his compassion towards refugees, considering it to be ungodly.
Davide Morganti himself describes his character as being “a daughter killer and a sensual
mother, with a sort of religious obsession”.

Luisa Amatucci also played Caina in the theatre adaptation, and overly theatrical moments don’t
stay unnoticed, but considering the exaggerated mood of the film, it could be intentional.

The characters in Caina and the world predicted, summarizes all the stereotypical hatred and
attitude towards the refugee crisis the word is facing, walls of racism that are built and battle to
diminish human rights. In the future this leads to stealing the corpses of people that have
seeked safety in traumatizing journey and turning them in walls to keep the few deserving warm.
Premise wise, it is overwhelming, the directorial vision and decision might not work for most
people, because of the fast pace for a slow - demanding one, sudden very evolved
conversations that seems unfunded and the over- stereotypification of everything.

The breakdown of Caina, slowly happens when he accepts one of the illegal collectors as a
partner and starts to feel a sexual tension that is impossible for herself to accept.
Another defining moment is when one of the corpses of a woman that translates in her mind as
Zahidah for which she feels compassion and decides not to sell her body. She cannot complete
this act of humanity, as the corpse gets stolen by the illegal collectors and then she surrenders
to her hate, having the same faith as her bodies.
Her voice stays in a wall that seemingly belongs to them, preaching hatred and despise.
Caina is a bold film, over the top, raising awareness about the possible outcome of preaching
hate as religion. It is the kind of piece that will generate a lot of loathing as the director
Giampietro Balia puts it, but also a lot of interest.