Mark Lee Ping-Bing receives the Silver Bear award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for the cinematography in Chang Jiang Tu (Crosscurrent) during the awards ceremony at the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Feb 20, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

In the sea nearby, the Italian navy searches for overloaded boats full of refugees dying of suffocation and asphyxiation by diesel fumes and brings survivors back to Lampedusa for treatment and for transport to refugee centres.

"I want to dedicate this award to the people of Lampedusa who were always extremely open to accept people arriving there," Rosi said.

He noted that the flood of refugees that has made headlines recently began some 30 years ago for the island just off the coast of North Africa.

Rosi said he had asked Pietro Bartolo, a physician on Lampedusa who treats refugees and appears in the film, why the island welcomes the tens of thousands of people who land there.

"He told me Lampedusa is a place of fishermen, we are fishermen, and fishermen, they all accept always, anything that comes from the sea. So this may be a lesson that (we) should learn to accept anything that comes from the sea," Rosi said.