Waking Hours
Filippo Foscarini & Federico Camamrata / Italy / 2025 / 78 min
Smugglers transport people across the border to Europe during an endless, sleepless night. A cinematic film shot in pitch darkness, which should be experienced in the cinema at all costs.
Instead of following the refugees, ‘Waking Hours’ turns the camera on those who have made the border their livelihood. The documentary provides a rare insight into the everyday life of a clan of Afghan smugglers who live in a tent camp, smoke cigarettes, cook over a campfire, and pass the time in a forest area near the Serbian-Hungarian border. They wait for the next opportunity to help a migrant cross the threshold into Europe.
Through conversations, the smugglers’ personal stories emerge, hinting at the complex relationships between migrants, smugglers, and border authorities. ‘Waking Hours’ was filmed exclusively in pitch darkness with minimal equipment to avoid police detection. The only light comes from campfires, torches, cell phones, and flashlights. The darkness of night becomes both an aesthetic device and a metaphor for the hidden life that unfolds along Europe’s outer borders.