Last year, many things were different and almost the entire news was dominated by the Corona pandemic. Other explosive topics were pushed into the background as a result, but have by no means lost any of their relevance. The refugee crisis at the gates of Europe affects hundreds of thousands. As comprehensive as we are informed about the number of infections or people who have already been vaccinated, we learn very little about the people who live in wretched refugee camps under catastrophic conditions at the external borders of Europe and in North Africa.

The documentary video «Intervista Riace» by Costantino Ciervo, which was produced in 2012 in the Calabrian town of Riace, offers a bright spot in dealing with this misery. The small community of 2100 souls has repeatedly attracted international and media attention in recent years with its revolutionary refugee and integration policies. Ciervo's interview with Domenico Lucano, the mayor of Riace and founder of the «Città Futura» project, is about a progressive social and cultural commitment that is second to none. In the interview we learn how the settlement of so-called "irregular immigrants" (boat people) from various developing and crisis countries of the global south came about to revitalize Riace, a southern Italian settlement affected by emigration and decay.