Screening of Absolutely Must Go (2021), followed by a Q&A session with Olivier Bancoult, a Chagossian activist, leader of the Chagos Refugee Group, whose personal story is featured in the film. Moderated by Dr Riccardo Labianco

The story of a forgotten people. The story of a people deleted from the world map. The story of a deported people. Uprooted. From 1967 to 1973, in the midst of the Cold War, the Bancoult family and nearly 2,000 other Chagossians were taken from their archipelago, in the Indian Ocean, by Great Britain and the United States. The latter set up one of their most important military bases on the main island, Diego Garcia. It is from Diego Garcia that the B52s leave for the Middle East. The control of the Asian countries is carried out from Diego Garcia. Uprooted, but not resigned, Rita Bancoult, the matriarch, and her children Olivier, Ivo and Mimose have chosen to fight against this injustice and the drama that is affecting their people. This is their story.

Olivier Bancoult
Born in 1964 on the island of Peros Banhos in the Chagos Archipelago, from where he was forcibly removed at the age of 4 and transported to Mauritius. In 1982, his mother Rita Élysée Bancoult, together with activists Charlesia Alexis and Lisette Talate, founded CRG, the Chagos Refugee Group. Bancoult is an electrician and an advocate for the juridical right of the Chagossians to return from Mauritius to their original homeland. He has been involved in several high profile legal actions concerning the exile of the Chagos Islanders. He was one of five islanders who, on 13 February 2022, stepped on to the beach of Peros Banhos.