4.1 Miles

Synopsis

Kyriakos, a coast guard captain from the small Greek island of Lebos, finds himself tasked with saving thousands of Turkish refugees who are fleeing the war — from drowning in the 4.1 miles of sea that lies between Turkey and the Greek island.

He says that every hour, 10 members of the Greek coast guard are asked to rescue an influx of 200 people from Turkey, to the tune of three or four thousand refugees per day. The children's hospital on the island is filled with refugee children who have lost their parents.

We watch as he gets another call that a boatload of people is caught in the high winds and that several people have fallen overboard. They reach the boat and get several people, some of them children, out of the cold water. All of the others are also brought on board, visibly upset. A woman and two children are spotted a distance away from the boat. When the tiny children — a boy and a girl — are brought on board, they are not breathing and CPR is begun immediately.

Later, on land, we find out the girl has begun breathing just before she's put into an ambulance. They are still working on the boy and the captain breaks down, overcome by emotion and overwhelmed by the number of people he's tasked with saving — and the fact that sometimes some of them don't make it.

UCLA student and journalist Daphne Matziaraki joined the heroic captain on a single day — October 28, 2015 — to film this documentary.