THE FUSE

“Europe’s New Faces” presents an experience that headlines have termed the “European migrant crisis” in a novel way. Unlike other films on the subject, the documentary offers no narrative threads to follow, no protagonists whose voice and POV carry the story. What Sam Abbas, as director, cinematographer and editor, does here is to disarmingly present the situation in snippets that give the audience all the details of crossing from Libya to Italy, including elements both harrowing and mundane. In so doing, he engenders empathy and understanding for these displaced people and their struggle, taking a humanist approach rather than an abstract one.