Director: Tony Olmetti Schweikle.
The program is about “Saracen Pirates,” from countries around the Mediterranean Sea, and their attacks on the coastal cities of southern Italy to capture men, women and children for the slave markets of North Africa. Also filmed in vivid detail are some of the thousands of Watchtowers that were built along the shores of the Ionian, Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. Hundreds have withstood the assault of man and nature and can be visited today. The history of these towers and the people who manned them has never been told. All re-enactments were filmed at the sites of theses pirate attacks. Most of the extras are descended from survivors of these attacks. The time period of Pirate attacks takes place in the 1500’s. Other portions of the program cover 1,000 years of Mediterranean history, beginning with the first Watchtowers built on the island of Sardegna, circa 1500BC The program ends with the attack on the village of Ispani in 1532 by Pasha Heyreddin, (Barbarossa.) Heyreddin was an Admiral in the Ottoman Empire who attacked many cities in Italy, including Capri, where there is today a castle built by him. The video portion of the program was filmed in Italy with HD P2 cameras. All re-enactment scenes were filmed by the production company.