I disagree with the criticism that TVE has received for having broadcast the three episodes of the series at once.The law of the sea‘. Their audience success supports them. With a topic as not ‘fun’ as the tragedy of a boat full of Africans adrift, they managed to lead the television night on Sunday for two and a half hours straight.
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The theory that the audience already has a heart like the shell of a turtle and changes the channel when we see poor migrants at sea trying to reach our shores, this theory – which has some truth, yes – this time has not been compliment. The true story of the Santa Pola fishing boat ‘Francisco and Catalina’, which occurred in 2006, and which helped 50 adrift Africans, is the object of this production. The protagonist Luis Tosar as skipper of the fishing boat. It is as it always is: perfect. Also Blanca Portillo embodies her role as ambassador of Spain in Malta. Among the migrants I would like to highlight the Senegalese actor Lamine Thior, who we see from time to time in ‘The Intermediate’ in a sharp and pungent sense of humor. In this series he has profound moments. He tells the boss that he has been walking through deserts for two years, beaten by police, exploited by mafias, harassed by satraps and chiefs. They get rich by bleeding ‘blackness’. As far as possible, this group was lucky: they found a humanist skipper who knows that the law of the sea consists of helping the shipwrecked man and giving him help. And in the eyes of a girl who was also in the boat with her mother, a shine appeared, a luminous spike. This three-year-old girl was saved, but she has learned that the only future for an African is to flee. In this series we hear the sailors speak in Catalan-Alicante. With all naturalness. It is a normalization that I celebrate.
These three chapters portray only one section of the tragic African diaspora. The complete series remains to be done. From the moment they leave their country, their long and dramatic journey, until they arrive in Europe. Those who survive. And continue, and see how we receive them in Europe. I am not claiming a Hollywood production like ‘Raices, Kunta Kinte’. Just following what this girl has experienced, and what she will experience in the European ‘paradise’, there would be enough heartbreak. A ‘verité’ series. A necessary look. May our pupils droop with shame.