The Law of the Sea

In the summer of 2006, the crew of a small Spanish fishing boat made a decision that seemed straightforward: rescue the people they found drifting in the Mediterranean. There were 51 of them, including two pregnant women and a two-year-old child. The sailors had no training in diplomacy or immigration law. They had a boat, and they had people in front of them who would otherwise die.

What followed was nine days stranded at sea, blocked from disembarking at Malta and caught in a standoff between maritime law and European border policy. The crew of the Francisco y Catalina had upheld an obligation as old as seafaring itself. Europe treated their cargo as a problem it did not want.

Based on true events and winner of the Prix Italia for Best Drama Series, The Law of the Sea reconstructs this episode through the people who lived it: a skipper carrying the weight of every life on board, a Spanish ambassador caught between instruction and conscience, and a Sudanese migrant whose journey to that drifting skiff is its own story.

Starring Luis Tosar and Blanca Portillo, and directed by Alberto Ruiz Rojo, this Spanish miniseries keeps its focus on the human cost of institutional indifference.