San Diego Italian Film Festival is honored and excited to bring to San Diego director Andrea Segre for the San Diego premiere of his film L’ordine delle cose (The Order of Things). The film, which was co-written and directed by Segre and released last year, is a drama that explores the conflicts created by the migration crisis in Africa and asks whether it is possible to reconcile state law with the human instinct to help a person who is in danger—as relevant to us in the U.S. today as it is in Europe.

“Three years ago, when I began to work on this film, I didn’t know that things between Italy and Libya would have gone exactly the way we have recounted them, but unfortunately, I imagined they might,” says Segre.

“For many months, Marco Pettenello and I met with a few ‘real Corrados’ [the lead character in the film] and as we spoke with them I sensed that Italy was preparing to send migrants back to the Libyan detention centers. No one said so publicly but now, when the film is being released, it’s all being done in broad daylight.”

Segre says he hopes his movie will help people reflect on what is going on nowadays and on the long-lasting consequences we will experience for years to come. “In fact, I believe that many of us share Corrado’s circumstances, in this era which seems to have metabolized injustice. The tension between Europe and immigration is calling into question the very identity of Europe. Corrado and his story recount this identity crisis. Through him, his discipline and his emotional tension, I have searched for these same aspects of our civilization and our time. We are fully aware that we are abdicating our principles by denying rights and freedoms to human beings outside our space, but we try to not say so or even to be proud of it. This is the crisis which guided me, ethically and aesthetically, as I recounted Corrado’s world, a world as reassuring as it is disturbing.”

Don’t miss the chance to see L’ordine delle cose and hear from the director Andrea Segre after the film, during feStivale 2018 on October 6 at MoPA. In the meantime, check out the trailer here.