4.1 Miles

CinemaSerf

I'm not so sure this is a documentary, or even really an opinion piece. To me, it is more of a video diary of a few hours with the Coast Guard based on the Greek island of Lesbos. Statistically, a decade or so ago over half a million people tried to cross the 4.1 miles from Turkey, and in this short feature we see the crew of their modestly equipped vessel quite literally pluck dozens of people from the sea. Many have paid their life saving to smugglers who overload them into small rubber boats and then leave them to the elements and survival is by no means guaranteed. Four miles might not sound all that far, but with ill-supplied and terrified passengers of all ages and sexes at the mercy of the winds, waves and the tides these maritime samaritans face a continuing struggle to cope with the relentless stream of new arrivals. It isn't just the migrants who have their problems as it's fairly clear that the local fishing villages aren't resourced to accommodate this ever increasing influx of people and as the skipper suggests at the end, it cannot possibly continue like this. There is no narration nor really any structure to the filmmaking here, so it's left to us to make of this disgusting business what we will, but it does show us - newsreel style - that a well placed camera can speak a thousand words (or a million if you are a politician).