Kaafila to Be Based on Yioham Tragedy

A film is going to be made on the tragedy of The Yioham which resulted in death of 283 immigrants. This tragic incident happened in the Mediterranean Sea while the immigrants were transferring from Yioham to a Maltese registered ferry which was drowned. Based on such a tragic and pathetic incident, director Ammtoje Mann wants to make the movie named ‘Kaafila’. The movie is budgeted for $4million and the shooting will be in Europe and in Ladakh, Manali and Punjab in India. I ma quoting some lines regarding this movie from a Timesofmalta report:

Director Ammtoje Mann told ADNkronos International (AKI): "It's a real thing happening in India and the world. So many people are suffering from this. I believe in meaningful cinema and having real issues. The film is not only based on the Malta boat tragedy but all things related to this illegal activity."

The thriller relates how a group makes the journey to Europe illegally, becoming the victims of agents who force them into hiding in Eastern Europe and enduring hardship.

The film does not make direct reference to the Yioham incident but there is a segment shot on a boat carrying 200 people that ends tragically. The 30-minute scene was shot in a British film studio.

The film was extensively shot in Europe and in Ladakh, Manali and Punjab in India at a reported cost of $4 million. The cast includes Indian film star Sunny Deol and Pakistani actresses Monalisa and Sana Nawaz, who plays an Afghan girl from Kabul.

Mann learned of the incident from news reports - the tragedy hit the headlines in 2001 after reports by La Repubblica journalist Giovanni Maria Bellu.

Last July, Green MPs Arnold Cassola and Tana de Zulueta were the first signatories of a draft law presented to the Italian Parliament calling for the recovery of the Yioham wreck and the erection of an inter-faith memorial at Porto Palo.

Four Italian Nobel laureates - Dario Fo, Rita Levi Montalcini, Carlo Rubbia and Renato Dulbecco - called for the recovery and proper burial of the immigrants' remains.

Mann is no stranger to controversy: his 2003 film Hawayein dealt with the 1984 riots in India caused by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the massacre of Sikhs in the ensuing bloody reprisals.

Kaafila will be released in India but Mann hopes it will also reach European theatres.

I think this movie can get hit in the box office as it has a relation with a pathetic and mostly-known incident. However, it is yet to see what the result is.