“Fire at Sea” – Dr Pietro Bartolo at PIPOL 8

“Fire at Sea”* (directed by Gianfranco Rosi, released 2016) is the kind of documentary film that allows the viewer to gradually gain some knowledge about something from which they might otherwise turn away. The film is mostly taken up with the escapades of a young boy, Samuele, who lives on the small Italian island of Lampedusa with his fisherman uncle and his grandmother. As we follow Samuele, we get to meet Dr Pietro Bartolo, who helps the youngster with his ‘lazy eye’.

Dr Bartolo is going to be a special guest at the PIPOL 8 Congress in Brussels (1-2 July). It was only when I was translating a text by the President of the Congess, Patricia Bosquin-Caroz, that I finally understood who this man is and why it is so important that he will be present at the Congress.

Patricia’s text is a report of her meeting with Pietro Bartolo. The style of her writing made me think that she was still in shock from her encounter: the text was urgent, clear, and made up of short, sharp sentences. She had gone with two colleagues to meet Dr Bartolo and speak to him about the forthcoming congress and his part in it. She spent many hours alongside him as he got on with his work and talked to her at the same time. His work on Lampedusa includes the problems that wash up on the shore day by day. By virtue of its geographical location, Lampedusa is the primary landing point for the boats full of people fleeing war via North Africa. Patricia ended up joining Dr Bartolo on his night duty:

“At 2 a.m., he calls to tell us to go to the Favarolo dock. We will be joining the team of volunteers who are busy preparing water, hot tea and cakes. The doctor is waiting patiently, surrounded by his medical team. None of them wear masks – covering their faces is not allowed. This detail caught our attention. One welcomes the other’s fundamental otherness with an uncovered face – Levinas calls this the experience of the face.”

The Congress title is “A Non-Standard Clinical Practice”, and this detail – to not wear a facial covering when greeting the people from the boats – is a fine example of how Dr Bartolo’s practice fits into this rubric. If you watch the film, you will see exactly what is at stake. The official border force whose job it is to ‘greet’ the refugees on behalf of the local government agencies are clad from head to toe in white, hermetically sealed suits, including full facial covering. They look like spacemen encountering aliens. The people on the boats are almost at the opposite extreme: worn out, tired, thirsty, hungry, and stripped of almost all their possessions. The decision to work without protective clothing is a simple but remarkable gesture that demonstrates how Dr Bartolo maintains the ethic of  “a non-standard clinical practice”. He treats human subjects one by one; not as objects, not as statistics. Which is why he is the guest of honour at the PIPOL 8 Congress.

* The title of the movie, “Fire at Sea”, has a double meaning which is explained in the movie. It refers back to the Second World War, and also refers to a new medical condition caused by the fuel of the zodiac rescue boats mixing with sea water.