The documentary En Route to Europe, We Burn or Die (2024), which was produced and directed by CCAS Adjunct Professor Noureddine Jebnoun and MAAS alum Jakob Plaschke, was recently selected as a featured film at two major areas studies conferences. The film, which focuses on migration in Tunisia, Africa and the Mediterranean, was selected, screened, and discussed as part of the official Media Critic program of the African Studies Association 68th Annual Meeting, held in Atlanta, GA from November 20-22, 2025. Also, the 59th Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, held in Washington DC (November 22-25), selected and streamed the film at the MESA’s 42nd Annual Film Festival.
About the film:
In the port city of Zarzis in southern Tunisia, the sea has always been a space of mobility. However, Fortress Europe continues to entrench its sea walls and extend proxy borders into North and West Africa, sponsoring local coercive apparatuses. Such measures have turned journeys of hope into deadly crossings, forcing illegalized and irregularized travelers seeking to overcome political, economic and social marginalization in search of better opportunities into increasing violence and risk. Through interviews in and around Zarzis, En Route to Europe, We Burn or Die, weaves together the stories of individuals who are navigating precarity amid deadly border control mechanisms across Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.