Fire at Sea (2016) poster
2016 · documentary · drama

Fire at Sea

Directed by Gianfranco Rosi1h 54m2016
ElsewhereIMDb6.76kRT95%Metacritic87TMDB6.6248
  • heavy
  • slow-burn
  • intense
Movie DNA

Heavy, slow-burn, measured documentary / drama, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.

Our read · Fire at Sea (2016) reads as a heavy, slow-burn, grounded documentary · drama entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Fire at Sea

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a patient observational portrait of the migrant crisis on one island.

ends ambiguousit stays with youmeditativegrips by minute 25attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou need fast pacing or cannot handle real-world human suffering tonight.

If Fire at Sea is your film
Human Flow (2017)
global scale of migration and human stories
(if you prefer intimate local focus)
Mediterranea (2015)
personal migrant journey across sea to Europe
(narrative drama feels too different)
4.1 Miles (2016)
coast guard rescue on the same dangerous waters
(short docs do not satisfy)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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