La dérive des continents (au sud) (2022)

Sicily, early 2020: At a refugee camp, Nathalie, an official with the European Union, is tasked with organizing an “impromptu” visit by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She works with two government delegates: Charles-Antoine, who represents President Macron, and Ute, who represents Angela Merkel. Nathalie and Ute know each other well; they have worked together before and are in an intimate relationship. Charles-Antoine thinks the camp is too “clean” and insists on staging a scene of misery in an unsanitary part of the camp, so that the French president can be shown to best advantage: his visit would then make a marked improvement in the situation possible. Nathalie is stunned to find Albert, her son, with whom she lost contact after her divorce. He works at the camp as a volunteer for an NGO. Albert has personal scores to settle with Nathalie, whom he accuses of abandoning him, and is extremely critical of the European Union’s migration policy, which Nathalie is responsible for implementing. Nathalie invites Albert to a bar, but he does not show up. She then goes to the youth hostel where he is staying with the other volunteers. Their meeting goes badly, and as she is leaving, Nathalie is injured in the leg by a bottle thrown at her. Albert spends the night at the police station, accused of assaulting his mother and causing extensive damage at the youth hostel. Nathalie eventually pays for the damage and goes to the police station the next day to collect her son. She asks Albert to repay some of her expenses by working for her, scanning old refugee records that include their fingerprints. Albert flatly refuses, unwilling to help bring refugees who have since moved to other countries back to Italy under the Dublin Regulations. The visit by Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel is abruptly cancelled because the two leaders have to go to Rome for a summit on the Covid-19 pandemic. Nathalie takes the opportunity to show her son a little of Sicily, including the town of Gibellina. But a meteorite destroys their car, and Nathalie is stranded in the countryside, looking for a way to get back to town. She encounters African migrants working in fields, and villagers organizing a procession in memory of refugees drowned in the Mediterranean. When she arrives at the camp, young NGO activists try to force their way in, and a refugee delivers a long speech accusing Europeans of indifference to the suffering of Africans. The visit by Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel is announced again, setting off frantic preparations. Nathalie and Albert go to the hangar where the refugees’ files are stored. They throw the doors wide open and let the papers fly away. The mass of papers carried off by the wind leads to another cancellation of the two leaders’ visit. At Catania airport, Nathalie, Albert, Charles-Antoine, and Ute are about to board a plane to leave Sicily when they are suddenly told that all flights have been cancelled and Italian airspace is closed, as a lockdown of the population has just been declared because of the Covid-19 pandemic. They have to return to the camp to await instructions. Albert manages to slip away with Nina, a young Italian blogger.