Ahead of Me the South

3,700 kilometres of coastline, a Fiat Millecento and an old travel diary – these are the ingredients used to make Pepe Danquart’s documentary Ahead of Me the South (Vor mir der Süden). Following in the footsteps of the great Italian thinker Pier Paolo Pasolini, the filmmaker gains a deep insight into the social reality of present-day Italy. The country is hugely affected by globalisation and the phenomenon of mass tourism, which, more than ever, is characterised by the same hedonistic conformity that Pasolini lamented more than fifty years ago. The film also sheds light on the situation of African refugees who, after their perilous flight to Europe, mostly end up on the Italian coast. Ahead of Me the South is a poetic contemporary documentary, a kaleidoscopic picture of modern Italy.