Shalom Asmara














DOCUMENTARY
Shalom Asmara
Asmara, a city where peoples, languages and different religions cohabitate harmoniously, and where the Jewish community, settled here at the beginnning of the 20th century, is still present. A journey through the past lived through the memory of the protagonist, who goes back to visit the sites of his childhood.
It was during the second alf of the 1800 that Jewish people, coming from the Arabic Peninsula, victims of repeated pogroms, migrated towards the Western coast of the Red Sea, in particular towards Massawa. They were attracted by the perspectives of urbanization and development of the newly formed Italian colony of Eritrea. Other Jews, coming from the Mediterranean, settled in the early 1900 in Asmara, which soon began a reference point for the Jews that were escaping Italy after the promulgation of racial laws. In Eritrea we can still see clear traces of this history. The memory of the Jewish presence is preserved by the older people and by the faithful of other religious confessions. In Eritrea the peaceful coexistence of all religious confessions and of different ethnic groups and nationalities was always a common cultural trait.
Date:
11 December 2020
Directed by:
Marco Cavallarin, Marco MensaLength:
31'Production:
EthnosCollaboration:
Compagnia di San Paolo, Centro Piemontese Studi Africani, Museo Diffuso della Resistenzayear:
2004Historical research:
Marco CavallarinDate:
11 December 2020