Landing roles in Matteo Garrone’s “Io Capitano” was a life-changing experience for Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall. Young Senegalese actors were chosen to play African immigrants Seydou and Moussa, respectively. Two young people who hope to make their dreams come true in Europe and, eventually, in the United States, after crossing the African continent and the Mediterranean Sea. However, their director, best known for 2008's “Gomorrah,” threw them a curveball for their first real professional gigs. It turns out that no one in the cast ever had a complete script.
“They went on this journey without knowing how it was going to end, because we didn't give them the script,” Garrone reveals. “Every day they discovered a new adventure and they didn't know if they were going to be successful or not.”
Filmed as chronologically as possible, “Io Capitano” follows Seydou and Moussa as they are forced to pay off countless smugglers, walk through a hot desert, deal with violent Libyan soldiers, fall victim to human traffickers and, eventually, guide to a group full of people. an old, dilapidated boat full of other migrants across the sea. The details would be almost unbelievable if every chapter of the film wasn't based on true events and Garrone collaborated with three different screenwriters to make sure the film was as accurate as possible. Garrone refers to the story of him, the Italian film nominated for the Oscar for best international film, as “the most dramatic tragedy of our time,” the universal desire to find a better life.
“In the United States you have [this story] with Mexican or Venezuela [migrants]. But not everyone knows how big the tragedy is. [here]”says Garrón. “We know it in Europe. We know that people die in the desert. We know that people died in prison in Libya, we know that people died at sea. That's why we wanted to give the audience an emotional experience through the eyes of the actor. That was what prompted us to tell this story, to show the world that this journey is not only made by people escaping war as we used to think, but also by young people. That he is involved in globalization, because sometimes we forget that globalization has also reached Africa very strongly.”
For example, the 55-year-old filmmaker points out that social networks have reached the phones of young Africans. They see what is happening in Europe and the United States. They chat and write online. They see images that create dreams and promise something new. What young people like Seydou and Moussa don't often see are the real-world struggles of anyone living on the other side of those photos and videos.
However, at the center of “Io Capitano” is Seydou's journey, which transforms him from one of many faceless immigrants to a genuine hero. A hero, says Garrone, “fighting for life in a system of injustice where all basic human rights are completely destroyed.” And much of the credit for the film's emotional impact goes to the captivating Sarr for his portrayal of Seydou.
“Sometimes when you work with actors, they get a chance to show, maybe in one scene, how good they are,” Garrone admits. “Sometimes you can feel a little narcissistic [in that, and] I never had this feeling with Seydou. He was always very simple and he was always looking inside himself, never to show how good he was. And I think it was a good lesson and it also made my work so intense and deep. He helped me a lot with this innocence in some way.”
Filming sequentially was a challenge. Production began in Senegal and then moved to the deserts of Morocco. At the end of filming, everyone was in the comfortable confines of Sicily to shoot the boat scenes, which didn't necessarily help with the urgency Garrone wanted to maintain on set.
“The problem was that they arrived in Italy two weeks before the character. They were like in the pool, drinking, playing, eating very well,” says Garrone. “And then the next day they went to the ship. But the approach was completely less intense, because they arrived in Italy long before the character. I tried to say, 'Please don't stop, we've done all this, in two weeks, stay focused please.' And after a while, I finally start to regain their concentration.”
Despite the obvious political controversy over immigrants in all corners of the world, Garrone insists that “Io Capitano” “is not a thesis film.” There are no easy answers to such a complex question. Instead, he attempts to give a point of view to the young people who decide to embark on such an arduous journey. That positive portrayal could be a call to arms for many politicians who fan the flames of anti-immigrant policies, but Garrone was given a distinctly Italian lifeline when the film hit local theaters.
“A week after the premiere in Italy, Pope Francis decided to screen the film in the Vatican. He wanted to support the film, because he has always been on the side of immigrants,” says Garrone. “His parents were immigrants; He knows that this is the tragedy of our time. I think this helps us be at a higher level. We never had any political discussions with the political groups in Italy, because the Pope in a way [gave a stamp of approval].”
