Dignity for migrants must be our guiding light: ‘Cabrini’ film star

Italian actress Cristiana Dell Anna attends the showing of her latest film Cabrini at UN Geneva, Switzerland. UN Photo-Srdjan Slavkovic

18 January 2025 - 'Cabrini' film lead and Gomorrah star Cristiana Dell’Anna travelled to Geneva on Friday to highlight the age-old dangers confronting migrants – and the astonishing Italian missionary who travelled to New York City's slums at the turn of the last century, determined to protect them.

“Being from southern Italy, the migration issue is very close to my heart. Southern Italians have always emigrated throughout history, especially during the Second World War and I have in my family people who have emigrated and I am an emigrant myself,” Ms. Dell’Anna said, ahead of a special screening of her film at the Palace of Nations in the Swiss city.

Inspired by the true story of Italian nun, Mother Francesca Cabrini, who Pope Leo XIII tasked with helping vulnerable migrants arriving in the United States at the turn of the last century, her gripping account offers an uncomfortable perspective on the discrimination and racism reserved for impoverished and dark-skinned Italian migrants yet to learn English in the already booming city – where Italian street children are denigrated as “monkeys”.

Painfully accurate

“It is very accurate – in fact, this one particular shot I'm thinking of, of some children, sitting on just by a little wall - it's inspired by a picture that was taken during those times,” Ms. Dell’Anna said.

“So, it is very accurate and everything you see in the movie’s actually happened at some point.”

Despite serious lifelong sickness and with the help of other Italian nuns and volunteers in the notorious and often dangerous Five Points slum, Mother Cabrini took in orphans, fed, clothed and educated them.

She was canonized for her work in 1946 – the first US citizen to be made a saint.

“We've forgotten how to be inspired and I just think that Cabrini could very much aid that idea because it's a true story, it's a very compelling one.”

Ms. Dell’Anna told UN News at the event, co-organized by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the Permanent Mission of Italy and the Permanent Observer of the Holy See.

“And I just I just thought that starting a dialogue in that sense and being here, it could be a good starting point to maybe try and ground again certain ideas, or ideals and principles that should be our guidance through our daily life for everyone.”

Trading places

She added: “I often ask myself, ‘Where does the migrant stand today in a world where we - it's easier to trade merchandise and it's easy for things to travel around the world rather than human beings?’ We should probably reflect on these issues and understand where we place humankind compared to objects.”

Latest UN estimates indicate that there are at least 281 million international migrants around the world, a number that has increased over the past five decades, with people continuing to move from their homelands driven by poverty, conflict and climate change.

To accept the divisive and hateful rhetoric that this age-old phenomenon continues to inspire is to forget our humanity, Ms. Dell’Anna maintains.

“I think we should probably learn a lesson from this movie. Migrants are not really doing well, especially in southern Italy, in the whole country, I'm afraid to say. The way we treat migrants has changed radically and they've become more of a threat rather than an integral part of society.”

Dignified approach

Thanks to a painstakingly researched backstory that covers the arc of Mother Cabrini’s life and campaigning work in rural northern Italy to her struggles against authority – and rank hostility in New York, Cabrini “gives us an opportunity – gave me an opportunity - to tell a little bit of what we went through when we were the ones migrating. Now, we are the ones actually denying the right of dignity, which in my opinion, is a universal right and should be recognized as such”, Ms. Dell’Anna explained.

Asked what Mother Cabrini herself might have made of the film depicting her mission, with its stunning and sometimes soul-destroying cinematography, Ms. Dell’Anna replied confidently: “She would be really pleased that we are telling the story. Not because of her, but because of the other huge main character that is in the story, which is the migrant.

“She’d be really pleased, because this is a very pertinent and contemporary issue… she probably would say something like – she was very pragmatic – she would say, ‘Press on.’” – UN News