RESCUE
Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Iceland, Germany
2026 | 82 min. | Documentary

In one of the most harrowing rescue missions in the Mediterranean, a Médecins Sans Frontières ship pulls a group of migrants from the sea. In the chaos, Yemeni father Hani is separated from his wife, Roro, and their young children. What follows is a desperate struggle to find one another again, unfolding across borders, detention centres and Europe’s asylum system.

With unprecedented access aboard the MSF rescue ship Geo Barents, filmmaker and anthropologist Sine Plambech follows Hani as he navigates a system designed to keep people like him out of Europe. Meanwhile, Roro fights to survive captivity in Libya, secretly recording her ordeal on a phone hidden in her baby’s diaper. Her footage offers an intimate and unfiltered account of what happens to migrants trapped on the other side of Europe’s externalised border regime.

Unfolding with the urgency and twists of a political thriller, RESCUE is ultimately a deeply human story of love, loss and resilience. Through Roro and Hani’s fight to reunite their family, the film exposes the devastating human consequences of a migration system built around deterrence - and one woman’s relentless determination to reclaim her dignity, her family, and her right to be seen.

Directed by: Sine Plambech
Written by: Sine Plambech, Janus Metz Pedersen
Produced by: Andreas Dalsgaard, Sofie Husum Johannesen, Tereza Šimíková, Cristina Rajola, Elin Kamlert, Hanna Björk Valsdóttir, Stefan Kloos, Lisa Nyed
Cinematography: Troels N’Koya-Jensen, Stroud Rohde Pearce, Niels Thastum
Editing: Per K. Kirkegaard, Marion Tuor, Julieta Balasch
Original Score: Uno Helmersson
Sound: Björn Viktorson
Visual Effects: Casper Riis

Statement of the director:
Today, the EU outsources its border control to African countries to act as a border fence to keep migrants out of Europe. It is a reality where rescue operations at sea
have become a political tug-of-war over overcrowded boats with children and families, and where those who try to save lives risk being prosecuted themselves.

As an anthropologist, I have documented the migration routes to Europe for twenty years, but on the deck of the Geo Barents migrant rescue ship in the middle of the Mediterranean, I truly saw the brutal tug-of-war over human lives that takes place in the name of the EU. With RESCUE, my desire is to examine what we, as a society, are actually funding at Europe's borders, to show the human consequences of this political strategy, and give a voice to the people who brave the open sea and risk everything in hopes of a safer future for their children.

Production:
Elk Film
https://www.elkfilm.dk/

World Sales:
Autlook
https://www.autlookfilms.com/

Press/social media agency:
Hook Publicity
http://www.hookpublicity.com/