One evening in January 2017, a video spread across social networks of a young Gambian drowning in Venice’s Grand Canal. Filmed with a mobile phone, the body, petrified by the cold, appears to be sinking despite the lifebuoys thrown in its direction. From the shore and the boats, passers-by insulted him without coming to his assistance. He was 22 years old and his name was Pateh Sabally.

4000 kilometres away, the voices and faces of his family tell the story that preceded this tragedy, the story on the back of the images…