(by Adam Hanzelewicz) (ANSA) - JIHLAVA - A documentary based on cross-dialogues between 19 people from different countries and social milieu, which portraits immigration in the Czech Republic since the Soviet invasion and until the recent migration crisis.

Italian director Emanuele Ruggiero - who lives in Brno with his Czech wife and son since 2013 - described his work 'CZizincii' on the sidelines of the 21st International Jihlava Documentary Festival.

The film was shot by Ruggiero and Antonio Pedro Nobre (Portugal) in Brno, the European 'Silicon Valley', in six languages (Czech, Slovak, English, French, Spanish and Italian). Actors and actresses are real people: among them are a Canadian professor, a Spanish illusionist, an Iranian musician, a former Congolese student who arrived in the communist era.

''The film was also appreciated by teachers - the director said - who think that it should be seen by young people, to make them aware of their country's recent history. The interesting thing is that since I started living here and since I shot 'CZizincii', I have become much more interested in migrations: I analysed the story of some Italians who came here over the centuries. There are stories - he adds - that nobody knows. For example, there were 6/700 Italians north of Brno, at Blansko, during the First World War: from Trentino, who was Austro-Hungarian, they had been forced to cross the Alps, and they reached a kind of concentration camp, first in Innsbruck, then in Salzburg and finally in Brno. When war ended these people did not have the means to go back home; they had no money, there were no trains. Whoever returned to Trentino was again a migrant in place which was different from the one he had left, having become part of Italy''. (ANSA).