IO CAPITANO reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Matteo Garrone
Stars: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Khady Sy, Isaaka Sawadago, Venus Gueye, Hichem Yacoubi, Doodoo Sagna.
Two teenaged boys from Dakar in Senegal dream of moving to Europe to pursue a music career. This harrowing drama comes from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, who in 2008 gave us the hard-hitting Mafia drama Gomorrah. Written by Garrone, Massimo Gaudiosio, Massimo Checcherini and Andrea Tagliaferri, the film has been largely inspired by the actual firsthand stories of African migrants trying to escape poverty and corruption to find a better life in Europe.
For six months cousins Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) have been saving the money they have earned from working part time so that they can buy passage to Europe and become rap stars. They keep their plans secret from their families although Seydou tests the waters with his mother (Khady Sy), who warns him that many people have died while attempting the journey. Undeterred, they finally head off on their journey, leaving their crowded house in the middle of the night. But they find that their early sense of excitement and optimism quickly sours as their journey becomes a harrowing nightmare.
Using false passports, the pair pass through Mali and into neighbouring Niger. They have to bribe a policeman when the forged passports are revealed. They join a group of other migrants heading to Libya on a crowded truck. The trek becomes more fraught with danger when they are caught by a rebel group who shake them down. Moussa has hidden his money and is whisked off to prison.
Meanwhile Seydou is taken into Libya where he and his fellow migrants are taken prisoner by a rebel group who demand ransom from their families. He is befriended by Martin (Isaaka Sawadago), who becomes something of a father figure and protector to the boy. Seydou and Martin are then sold into servitude where they build a wall and a fountain for a rich Libyan. They eventually earn their freedom and arrive in Tripoli. Saydou searches for Moussa amongst the diaspora of Senegalese communities.
Finally, the pair end up on an overcrowded rust bucket of a boat to sail across the vast Mediterranean and face an uncertain future upon arrival in Italy.
In many ways Io Capitano is a coming-of-age tale in which the two teenagers are forced to grow up fast as they experience the disappointments and harsh realities that many refugees face in their search for a better life. They are quite unprepared for the horrible situations they encounter. Through the boys’ experiences Garrone also explores universal themes of friendship, loyalty, ambition, pain and resilience. The film is at times a touch melodramatic, but Garrone ratchets up the tension nicely during the arduous journey.
Io Capitano was superbly shot by cinematographer Paolo Carnera (Bad Tales, etc) who captures the stark beauty of the sweeping desert landscapes, which creates a vivid contrast to the scenes of everyday life in the boys’ hometown. He gives us a strong sense of place and the enormous scale of the epic journey that the two boys have undertaken. Despite the grim journey and the horrors that the boys encounter Garrone infuses the film with some optimistic moments, and he also injects several touches of fantasy into the narrative which helps to lighten the tone.
Both young stars make their film debuts here but bring an authenticity to their roles as they convey their fears and their optimism. Sarr, a local Tik Tok star and rapper, brings strength, resilience, naivete, a wounded innocence and dignity to his mature and emotionally demanding performance and he makes us care about the character and his fate.
Io Capitano is the latest in a string of films exploring the harsh realities of the refugee experience, but in dealing with these themes from the perspective of a teenage boy adds a darker tone to the harrowing and deeply moving material. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar which speaks to both its quality and its compassionate message.
★★★★
