A caravan of trucks that took open-air cinema to over 75,000 people in rural Senegal, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Gambia and Nigeria while raising awareness of the perils of migration is due in Rome, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
A film by Piero Cannizzaro and a short documentary by Paolo Colangeli being screened at Rome's Casa del Cinema on Monday will recount the CinemArena initiative organised by the foreign ministry and the United Nations migration agency IOM, the statement said.
The 135 screenings in the five African countries were held with workshops and theatre shows, the foreign ministry said, describing the 2018-2019 travelling CinemArena as an "important experience".
"The arrival of the CinemArena caravan in 135 African villages was an opportunity to talk with the local populations about the dangers encountered along the irregular migration routes," said the statement.
"It is essential that people are able to make decisions on the basis of access to correct and truthful information."
The CinemArena initiative began in 2002, according to the statement.
