On Christmas night 1996, a storm caused the shipwreck of a boat carrying migrants from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the cold waters between Malta and Sicily. As a result, 283 of the migrants on board drowned.

In the days following the shipwreck, sectors of the Italian media gave prominence to this event by interviews with some survivors and by publishing a list of the victims.

Meanwhile, some fishermen from Portopalo di Capo Passero, the southernmost tip of Sicily, started finding human remains in their nets, but kept mum as they were fearful police inquiries would block their fishing activities.

Even though these were a small minority of the Portopalo fishermen, when this fact came to light, the Italian and the international media focused on these fishermen who threw away the human remains they found in their nets, and Portopalo has remained associated with the tragedy ever since.

There are still doubts at how and where the tragedy took place, and why the bodies of the victims were never recovered from the sea.

On its part, the community of Portopalo has always tried to do its best with the thousands of migrants who every year pass from its vicinity.

Il viaggio di Adamo is a documentary produced by Ginevra Bentivoglio, art historian and owner of the publishing house GB EditoriA of Rome. In 2008 she published the second edition of her investigative report Dossier Portopalo, il naufragio fantasma: verità a confronto by the Sicilian writer and journalist Sergio Taccone. The documentary was directed by Guido M. Coscino and Giuliano La Franca who also wrote the script together with the writer and journalist Matteo Liberti. The documentary is edited by Maurizio Montesi, with music by Michele Baiani, photography by Niccolò Berretta. The movie/documentary is expected to be launched in Portopalo in the coming weeks.