MARSEILLE, 30 September 2026 — A new documentary traces SOS MEDITERRANEE’s work in the Central Mediterranean through the voices of the rescuers who have carried it out.
10 Years of Resistance at Sea follows the organisation from its first rescue operations aboard the Aquarius to operations on the Ocean Viking and its first aerial monitoring mission. Through first-hand accounts, the film revisits a decade of rescues, shipwrecks and prolonged standoffs—and what it has taken to keep returning to sea.
In February 2016, SOS MEDITERRANEE went to sea in response to the deadly gap left as European states stepped back from rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean. Since then, the organisation has adapted its work to uphold the mandate entrusted to it by European civil society: to save lives at sea.
The documentary also examines the growing pressures on humanitarian rescue, including an increasingly violent environment at sea, the 2025 armed attack on the Ocean Viking, and political hostility and attempts to criminalise rescue work. It brings a human perspective to events too often reduced to policy debates.
Over the past decade, SOS MEDITERRANEE has rescued more than 43,700 people in the Central Mediterranean. But this film is not a tally of lives saved. It bears witness to those who survived, those who were lost, and those who refused to look away.
Ten years of rescue operations are not a cause for celebration. That civilians must continue to respond to people in distress at sea points to a profound failure by European states to uphold their responsibilities. Yet the people in this film also offer a reason for hope: across Europe, many still choose solidarity and refuse to turn away from those in need.
Through changing circumstances, SOS MEDITERRANEE’s mission has remained rooted in three principles: Rescue. Protect. Testify.
10 Years of Resistance at Sea is available to watch on YouTube and will be screened at locations across Europe. Details of upcoming screenings will be shared on SOS MEDITERRANEE’s websites and social media channels.
