Italian director Matteo Garrone, whose latest film has been nominated for an Oscar, wants to shine a light on the desperate plight of immigrants without getting into politics.
“Io Capitano” is an epic story about two Senegalese teenagers who cross Africa to reach Europe, and is one of the five films nominated for “Best Foreign Film” at the Academy Awards on March 10th. It is one of the movies.
The director told AFP that the Oscar nod was “very important”, especially “when such a sensitive story is being told”.
“Every evaluation helps overcome prejudices among a wider audience,” Garrone said in an interview at his office in Rome.
Behind him are the storyboards he spent months in Morocco and Senegal preparing for his 11th feature film, the director known worldwide for 2008’s Gomorrah and 2019’s Pinocchio. It includes dozens of photographs and paintings.
Despite spectacular photography and a touch of poetic reverie, “Io Capitano” depicts a cruel reality: the migrants, many of them mere children, who cross Africa, reach the Mediterranean, and beyond, Europe. It deals with our trials.
In the film, two 15-year-old cousins decide to leave their family without warning in order to try their chances. I came up with this scenario during my first visit to the center.
While there, Garrone heard how the makeshift boat carrying 250 people across the treacherous waters was being captained by a teenager who had never been at the helm of a ship before. Ta.
“It reminded me of Stevenson, Jack London, Conrad’s adventure stories and sea adventure stories,” he said.
“We, especially in Europe, are used to imagining that when a ship arrives, there are only people on board who are fleeing war or climate change or despair,” he says.
“We often forget that even in Africa, 70% of the population is young,” he says.
Through images and videos posted on social media, they see visions of an alternate world in the West that “makes promises.”
“So there are a lot of young people out there going out to pursue their dreams, just like in the movie,” Garrone said.
“A dream to know the world, find better opportunities, travel and strive for success today.”
– “Exchange currency” –
“Io Capitano” captures some of the “almost documentary reality” of “Gomorra,” about the Camorra Mafia in southern Italy, while also drawing on the “magical abstraction” of “Pinocchio.” The director said there is.
The violence of migrant traffickers in the chilling torture scenes is reminiscent of methods used by organized crime groups in the Naples area.
“This mechanism is always tied to the pursuit of profit. These children, these victims, become exchange currency, a vending machine,” Garrone said.
But the director, whose country is at the forefront of Europe’s immigration crisis, stops short of blaming politicians and says he began making the film long before the current hard-right government of Giorgia Meloni took office. Told.
“This is not a film made to criticize or attack one government against another,” he said.
Instead, it aimed to “seek to shine a light on an unjust system and the continued violation of the most basic human rights.”
– Examination by the Pope –
The film won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival, and young star Seydou Sarr won Best Newcomer.
It was released in about 20 countries in Africa, toured schools in Italy and even toured the Vatican, where a special screening was organized in September.
Pope Francis, who has spoken out for immigrants many times during his papacy, welcomed Mr. Garrone and the film’s two leads, Mr. Saar and Mustafa Fall.
“Francesco said this is probably the biggest problem of our time, and you can see how close he feels to it,” Garrone told Corriere della Sera newspaper after the meeting.
Even as African migrants cross the continent and reach the north, they must survive the central Mediterranean, the world’s most dangerous sea crossing for migrants.
According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, 3,041 people died or went missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea last year.
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