Best Documentary Feature Film
Rohip International Film Festival Team – Karaikudi, India, November 2024 Best Italian Documentary – Final Competition
SamhainBaucogna International Film Festival – Tangier, Morocco, November 2024 Best Documentary Award
Tangier Film Festival Tangier, Morocco 2024, November 2024 Silver Turoล (2nd place)
IFF Etnofilm ฤadca – ฤadca , Slovakia, November 2024 Best Film about Freedom
NNW International Film Festival – Gdynia, Poland, October 2024 Main Award
International Festival Signs of the Night – Urbino, Italy, April 2024 Best Feature Length Documentary – Monthly Competition
SamhainBaucogna International Film Festival – Italy, Spain, Morocco – February 2024 Social Impact Award
Activists Without Borders Film Festival – Manchester, UK, December 2023 Best Documentary Editing Award – Italian Docu-Film Category
COLIFFE – Coliseum International Film Festival – Rome, Italy – December 2023
๐ฎ๐ณ Nawada International Film Festival โ Nawada, India, June 2025 (upcoming screening)
๐ณ๐ฌ Trans Africa international film festival – Jimeta, Nigeria, March 2025 (upcoming screening)
๐ฐ๐ท KIEFF – Korean Society for Visual Anthropology – Seul, South Korea, December 2024 (upcoming screening)
๐ฟ๐ฆ Ekurhuleni International Film Festival-EIFF – Germiston, South Africa, December 2024 (upcoming screening)
๐ฉ๐ช Festival Zeichen der Nacht – Berlin, Germany, December 2024
๐ฎ๐ณ Rohip International Film Festival โ Kallal, India, December 2024 (Private Jury Screening)
๐บ๐ธ Brandeis University – Waltham, Massachusetts, United States, November 2024
๐ฒ๐ฆ SamhainBaucogna International Film Festival – Tangier , November 2024
๐ฒ๐ฆ Tangier Film Festival – Tangier, Morocco, November 2024
๐ฟ๐ฆ World Anthropological Union Congress (WAU)โ – Johannesburg, South Africa, November 2024
๐ธ๐ฐ Constantine the Philosopher University – Nitra, Slovakia, November 2024
๐ธ๐ฐ University of ลฝilina – ลฝilina, Slovakia, November 2024
๐ธ๐ฐ IFF – Etnofilm ฤadca – ฤadca , Slovakia, November 2024
๐ซ๐ท Festival international Signes de Nuit – Paris, France, October 2024
๐บ๐ธ Immigration Film Festival – Washington D.C., United States, October 2024
๐บ๐ธ Monadnock International Film Festival – Keen, United States, October 2024
๐บ๐ฌ Human Rights Are Universal Arts Festival, Kampala, Uganda, October 2024
๐ต๐ฑ Festiwal Filmowy NNW – Gdynia, Poland, October 2024
๐ฟ๐ฆ Africa Human Rights Film Festival, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 2024
๐ท๐บ Days of Ethnographic Cinema – Moscow, Russia, September 2024
๐ณ๐ด Nordic Anthropological Film Association (NAFA) – Norway, September 2024
๐ฌ๐ง Portobello Film Festival – London, UK, September 2024
๐ง๐ฌ Sofia Biting Docs – Sofia, Bulgaria, August 2024
๐ช๐จ Festival de Cine Etnogrรกfico de Ecuador (FCEE) – San Salvador, Ecuador – July 2024
๐ฎ๐น African Diaspora Cinema Festival (ADCF) – Florence, Italy, June 2024
๐ฆ๐น ETHNOCINECA- International Documentary Film Festival – Vienna, Austria, May 2024
๐ฎ๐น FESCAAAL – Festival del Cinema Africano, d’Asia e America Latina – Milan , Italy, May 2024
๐ฑ๐ป Riga Pasaules Film Festival (RPFF) – Riga, Latvia, April 2024
๐ฎ๐น Festival internazionale Segni della Notte – Urbino, Italy, April 2024
๐ฌ๐ง Rapport Festival of Films – London, UK, March 2024
๐ฎ๐น SamhainBaucogna International Film Festival – Italy, February 2024
๐ฌ๐ง Activists Without Borders Film Festival – Manchester, UK, December 2023
๐ฎ๐น COLIFFE – Coliseum International Film Festival – Status: premiere – Rome, Italy, December 2023
๐ฒ๐ฐ KRATFEST – Kratovo International Festival of Ethnological Documentary Film – Status: work in progress – Macedonia, October 2023
THE STORY
Former UN soldier Essa has fled the Gambia for Finland, where he has successfully set up a business that provides for his family. Back in his hometown Bureng, he is celebrated as a hero. During a visit home, world events catch up with him: The coronavirus outbreak jeopardises Essaโs return to Europe and his application to renew his residence permit, plunging him into one of the most serious crises of his life.
“The Strong Man of Bureng” is both a contemporary odyssey and an intimate story of the deep motivations that have brought a person to leave his own country in an effort to satisfy universal needs.
GENESIS, ETHNOGRAPHY, and PRODUCTION
“The Strong Man of Bureng” is a film made over 4 years of filming and field research conducted at different times. The film is the result of a multisite ethnography between Gambia, Finland and Italy. “The Strong Man of Bureng”, a completely free-standing work, tells the story of one of the asylum seekers who appeared in the film “Hotel Splendid” (Mauro Bucci, 2016), after completing the procedures to get the refugee status. “The Strong Man of Bureng” explores the centrality of interpersonal relationships between migrants, their families, and their homelands: it portrays the invaluable role played by this intangible web of human connections โ made of social expectations, values, responsibilities, and pressures โ in shaping the dynamics and patterns of the diaspora phenomenon that links Africa and Europe.
THE FILMMAKER
Mauro Bucci is an Italian award-winning filmmaker and independent researcher working in the field of Ethnographic Cinema. He has written scientific essays about ethnographic cinema for Italian and international publications. He worked as a one-man crew shooting video, recording sound, and editing footage for “Hotel Splendid” (2016), his first work as a cinematographic author. This documentary film, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, was screened in over 200 events around the world. “The Strong Man of Bureng” (2023), his next documentary, is a work based on the subject of return migration. Mauro Bucci is particularly concerned with filmโs potential for studying and understanding human experiences and cultural practices.
FILM SCREENSHOTS
FESTIVAL SCREENINGS & EVENTS
INFO & CREDITS
Genre: ethnographic documentary
Country: Italy
Lenght: 75 minutes
Produced, filmed, edited by Mauro Bucci
Featuring: Essa J. Darboe, Yankuba Darboe,
Kaddy Darboe, Fatima Darboe and Elisa Salmi
Fieldwork advice: Essa J. Darboe, Baomar Touray
Translations: Mauro Bucci, Liza Tripp, Essa J. Darboe, Baomar Touray, Youssuf Darboe
Thanks to: all the Inhabitants of Bureng, Elisa Salmi, the street boys of Rome-Tiburtina
Copyright ยฉ 2023 Mauro Bucci
FOR ANY INQUIRES CONTACTS US:
E-mail: bosforo@gmail.com – Phone/WhatsApp: +39 389 8031690 – Facebook