the strong men of bureng
( mauro bucci )
2023
IT
film
official programme
( declaração do júri )
“With The Strong Man of Bureng (75 min, Italy, 2024), director Mauro Bucci has us as he delivers a compelling, multi-sited ethnographic film born of four years of fieldwork across Gambia, Finland and Italy. By embedding himself in his subject’s world, Bucci captures the emotional and cultural dimensions of circular migration. The documentary becomes both a deeply personal journey and a lens into the wider diaspora experience—one shaped by family ties, social expectations and the longing for return. The Strong Man of Bureng offers a tough, rare, humane perspective on migration not as a singular event but as a lived cycle, rich with complexity, hope and connection.”
→ Fabrizio Gallanti, Julia Albani, Romullo Baratto, Teresa Novais, Vasco Mendes
( declaração do júri )
“With The Strong Man of Bureng (75 min, Italy, 2024), director Mauro Bucci has us as he delivers a compelling, multi-sited ethnographic film born of four years of fieldwork across Gambia, Finland and Italy. By embedding himself in his subject’s world, Bucci captures the emotional and cultural dimensions of circular migration. The documentary becomes both a deeply personal journey and a lens into the wider diaspora experience—one shaped by family ties, social expectations and the longing for return. The Strong Man of Bureng offers a tough, rare, humane perspective on migration not as a singular event but as a lived cycle, rich with complexity, hope and connection.”
→ Fabrizio Gallanti, Julia Albani, Romullo Baratto, Teresa Novais, Vasco Mendes

Essa, antigo soldado da ONU, fugiu da Gâmbia para a Finlândia, onde conseguiu criar uma empresa que sustenta a sua família. Na sua cidade natal, Bureng, é celebrado como um herói. Durante uma visita a casa, os acontecimentos mundiais apanham-no de surpresa: o surto de coronavírus põe em risco o regresso de Essa à Europa e o seu pedido de renovação da autorização de residência, mergulhando-o numa das mais graves crises da sua vida. “The Strong Man of Bureng” é simultaneamente uma odisseia contemporânea e uma história íntima sobre as motivações profundas que levaram uma pessoa a abandonar o seu próprio país para satisfazer necessidades universais.
língua: afrikaans, inglês, finlândes
legendas: inglês