Covered with the Blood of Jesus

Tommaso Cotronei / Nigeria, Italy / 2015 / World Premiere / 72 min.

synopsis

For Richard, life is an unending cyclical journey to scratch out a living. Fetch water, take diesel from the pipeline, try to sell it by the side of the road, go to school, study in the dorm, fetch water again. If he wants to reach his goal – to get his education and use it to break out of the vicious circle of his life – he can’t stop. In a lively observation, the film director brings us closer to the life of poor Africans in the Niger River Delta. Close to natural heritage of enormous value, a huge agglomeration of residents suffers, to whom massive oil extraction that brutally destroys the environment brings only meagre extra income.

DETAIL:
“We are taking our oil, we are not stealing, it’s in our village. Europeans are enriching themselves with our resources and leaving us in extreme poverty. The entire world is benefiting from Nigeria but we don’t have access to it...”

biography

Tommaso Cotronei was born in Calabria, Italy. He entered the world of film as an assistant to director Vittorio De Seta. In his documentary films he often addresses the issues of poverty and the inability of people to break out of their social structures. In 2012, Jihlava IDFF audiences had the opportunity to see his film The Difference, which depicted life in a Bedouin village where water and diesel fuel are the basic units of survival.