The Wretched of the Sea
A documentary project by Camilla Baumann and Shana Monnin
with the participation of Saeed Maiga and Jannis Bierschenk
A Futur Proche production
Mindelo, Cape Verde
On one side, Jannis, Amadeus and Freddy, three 25-year-old Germans, document their sailing adventure: a quest for freedom, exploration and self-discovery. On the other, Saeed, a 30-year-old Malian, films with his phone his daily wait in front of Mindelo’s marina, hoping that a captain will agree to take him on board. For him, crossing the Atlantic is a matter of survival.
For seven months, Saeed endures rejection, humiliation and broken promises. After months of searching, he finally manages to embark on a boat bound for Brazil — only to disappear from the radar after a few days.
When he gets back in touch weeks later, he is emaciated, weakened and deeply shaken. He recounts what happened: engine failure, a broken radio, storms, drifting at sea, extortion and human trafficking.
Rescued at the last moment by a fishing boat after weeks adrift, Saeed eventually returns to where he started: with no money, and profoundly marked by the ordeal.
Through an intimate and personal exploration of unequal access to space and mobility, the film seeks to convey a message that is both poetic and political, subtly capturing the ambivalence between the promise of departure and the intersecting systems of discrimination that shape who gets to move — and who does not.
A unique narrative strength
The film is built around a rare and deeply authentic cinematic device: its protagonists are also the co-directors of their own story.
Jannis’s footage, shot on a cinema camera, evokes the contemporary road movie and the aesthetics of slow travel. Saeed’s images, filmed vertically on his phone, are raw, fragile and immediate. This contrast in the visual material directly reflects the difference in their lived experiences: on one side, a chosen and carefully framed adventure; on the other, a crossing shaped by urgency, uncertainty and necessity.
This confrontation between two filmed diaries — the enthusiastic self-representation of the European travelers and Saeed’s selfie videos — creates a particularly powerful narrative mirror. The film does not seek to explain inequality; it allows it to emerge organically through the editing of two parallel experiences of the same space.
Join our vision
Since its inception, this project has been driven by a profound sense of urgency. It was born out of a human, political, and artistic necessity: to document a reality as it unfolds, to give voice to those directly affected, and to contribute to an essential reflection on the world we live in today.
Up to this point, the film has been entirely self-financed by the directors’ personal investment. This choice is not merely the result of a desire for independence; above all, it stems from the need to act quickly. The issues addressed by the project cannot afford to wait for the usual timelines of traditional funding structures.
The very nature of the film places it at the intersection of documentary cinema and humanitarian engagement. This hybrid dimension does not fit easily within the conventional funding frameworks of Swiss cinema, which are often designed around specific artistic and institutional criteria.
Help us finalize this film
Funding this film means contributing to an independent documentary work that goes beyond the simple cinematic framework to become a tool for reflection, dialogue, and awareness-raising.
The context in which this project is embedded requires a level of responsiveness that is incompatible with the standard timelines of evaluation and approval of existing funding mechanisms.
This is why we have chosen to launch an independent international fundraising campaign, reaching out to partners who share our belief that certain stories must be told at the moment they are unfolding, rather than years later.
Your donation will allow us to finalize the film while preserving its editorial independence. Write or call us and you will be kept directly informed about all developments following your donation. Your name will appear in the sponsors unless preferred otherwise.
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Futur Proche SARL
77 boulevard St-George
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IBAN: CH36 0839 0038 2159 1000 0
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To ensure your donation please write WRETCHEDOFTHESEA in the payment description
About the directors
Camilla Baumann
Camilla Baumann is a Swiss-Brazilian filmmaker born in Geneva in 1989. She studied Social Sciences at the University of Geneva and History at the Global Studies Institute. Her work moves between documentary filmmaking, cultural production, and research, with a particular focus on social, political, and territorial issues. She regularly collaborates with Swiss Italian Television and organizes cultural projects between Ticino, French-speaking Switzerland, and Brazil. She is currently developing her first feature-length auteur documentary with the Pacte de l’Audiovisuel and Cinedokke.
Shana Monnin
Shana Monnin is a filmmaker and social worker.
She studied art history and social sciences at the University of Lausanne, then visual and media anthropology at HMKW Berlin. Her research and creative work explores the links between digital technologies and migration in Central America, particularly between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In this context, she directed the short film Doble Cara, composed of audio interviews with (im)migrant people and archival material, combined with images that contrast Western tourist realities. The film was shown in 2023 at Kino Moviemento in Berlin. Her various practices repeatedly question migration issues and inequalities in the appropriation of space.
The participants
Saeed Maiga
Saeed is a 30-year-old man originally from Mali. Every day, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., he stands in front of Mindelo’s marina, hoping to find a captain willing to take him on board to cross the Atlantic. “Over there, on the other side, there are islands that do not require a visa for us from Mali,” he explains. He documents his daily life with his phone. Saeed left Gao, in northern Mali where he is from, because militias were trying to recruit him into their paramilitary forces, and he moved to the south of the country where he studied to become a teacher.
He is well acquainted with migration routes, as he has long been trying to leave the African continent. He first left Mali for Niger with the intention of crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. But when he reached the Libyan border, his mother urged him not to go, as it was too dangerous; a family friend had just drowned while attempting the crossing. He explains that the boats crossing the Mediterranean are too unreliable, makeshift vessels, which is not the case in Cape Verde, where the boats are sturdier. A friend of his brother managed to cross the Atlantic from the Cape Verde islands and told him about this lesser-known route. In August 2025, seven months after his arrival, after many setbacks and unforeseen events, Saeed finally finds a captain who agrees to take him and five other African migrants on board.
The boat leaves the port of Mindelo on 29 August 2025 and disappears from the radars 3 days after the departure. The boat’s motor and radio broke and drifted in high seas for 5 weeks. They have been rescued by fishermen who brought them back to the African shore of Guinea Conakry…
Jannis Bierschenk
About the producer
Antoine Harari
Antoine Harari is an investigative journalist and independent producer who divides his time between Geneva and Sicily. He focuses mainly on investigations related to corruption, white-collar crime, and human rights violations.
Futur Proche is a creative documentary writing company. Founded by Antoine Harari in spring 2021, it produces both film projects as well as podcasts and long-form pieces. The themes it explores are related to the social issues of our current society.
The Wretched of The Sea 