SOULEYMANE BARRY

“To become a film director, I wished to go to Europe. But not right away. The dream was there in the corner of my mind, but I was a little boy, I was not thinking in any way about leaving Guinea,  and my family.” Then, it is violence, war, instability and the impossibility to study that make the decision for him. “Then, the stadium massacre happened (in September 2009, 157 people were slaughtered in the Conakry stadium during opposition protests), schools were closed for six, seven months, unrest. I put the dream on hold and, at 15, I left.”

Barry, however, like the majority of African migrants, does not think about Europe at all. “The idea was to seek some work and tranquillity in Angola.” But after a series of stops in Mali and Burkina Faso, he begins to experience recurring blackouts and unconsciousness. With him there is only a friend of the same age. He begins to feel scared. “This is where I first think of Europe, to take care of myself. And so we pay traffickers and aim for Niger to get to Libya.” He therefore enters the vicious cycle by accident. In 2012, he boards a ship. “We were one step away from the shipwreck, a Spanish ship rescued us. We ended up in Taranto, I had just turned 18 and I applied for asylum.” 

He is better now. But he still has panic attacks. Uncertainty and limbo create damage. “I didn’t get special protection until 2022.” Barry had to reset over and over again and start anew. He now lives alone, rents a place, and has a permanent contract as a construction worker. After graduating from high school with a language diploma he enrolled at the Roberto Rossellini Cine-Tv Institute in Rome. 

Our country will benefit a lot from an African filmmaker.