Pirates of the Mediterranean - A Game of Greed and Power (2024)

In the 1530s, Balthasar Stürmer, a German merchant's son, signs on to a Christian corsair ship hunting Ottoman merchant vessels in the Mediterranean. Just as he is planning to become the corsair captain of his own pirate enterprise, he falls into the hands of Ottoman corsairs himself and is sold to North Africa as a slave. In the summer of 2019, marine archaeologist Timmy Gambin and his team from the University of Malta make a sensational discovery: from a depth of 126 meters, a diving robot delivers images revealing the outline of a shipwreck which scientists date back to the 16th century. The film sheds light on a largely unknown piece of European history: piracy and slavery in the Mediterranean - human trafficking governed by law as an instrument for gaining power and for personal enrichment.