Writer-director Matteo Garrone had some trepidation about making a film, which eventually became Io Capitano (Italian for I Captain), centering on a pair of impoverished African teens seeking a better life by migrating to Europe. After all, with Italian middle-class roots, Garrone questioned whether he was equipped to tell such a story. But it was a narrative that fascinated him–sparked when he came across the journey of Amara Fofana, a 15-year-old African boy without nautical experience who was hired by a trafficker to ferry a battered vessel from Tripoli to Sicily with 250 migrants on board. Garrone felt a sense of purpose to showing the overall journey of these teenagers–across the Saharan desert and including this last improbable if not impossible leg at sea. He felt this story had the potential to spark empathy in others once they saw what migrants endure as they try to reach their destination for the chance to realize their dreams.
Garrone thus had to be less of an auteur as writer-director–and instead more of what he described as “a sort of mediator,” meaning he needed to work and connect with real migrants to gain insights into what they experienced. Listening and researching helped Garrone to discover that there was a part of this epic journey “that we don’t see.” The goal was for Garrone to see–and help audiences to see–what goes on within the minds and hearts of two teens, what they feel and experience, facing torture, witnessing human suffering, even escaping in their dreams to temporarily find some measure of comfort and salvation. He also wanted this film to go beyond the cinema norm which has been to show the last part of the journey, such as when a boat arrives in Italy, and then provide some account of the people who survived and those that died. Garrone instead wanted to visualize and “humanize” the overall experience, “to give the audience the possibility to live the journey of the real protagonists.”
Garrone deftly accomplished this cinematic goal as reflected in assorted industry honors for Io Capitano, including Italy selecting and submitting the film for Academy Award consideration, ultimately yielding an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film of the Year. Io Capitano earlier won the top directing and acting prizes (for Seydou Sarr) at the Venice International Film Festival. Sarr portrays Seydou, who ultimately winds up as the Captain. It’s he and his cousin, Moussa, portrayed by Moustapha Fall, who are the protagonists in this film–though much of the focus is on Seydou once Moussa is brutally separated from him, only for the two to later be reunited for the epic trip at sea. Sarr and Fall are two Senegalese high school students whom Garrone cast for the movie. The writer-director took a leap of faith with both newcomers, which proved to be justified.
Garrone assembled a sizable team of consultants, mostly immigrants who had lived the experience of the main characters. This guided the film’s development from writing (with Massimo Ceccherini, Massimo Gaudioso and Andrea Tagliaferri) through shooting and postproduction. This helped to inform a key aspect of Garrone’s approach–orienting the camera from the perspective of the immigrants, achieving, he explained, “a sort of reverse shot compared to the images we’re used to seeing from our Western perspective in an attempt to finally give voice to those who don’t usually have one.”
One of those real-life voices with whom Garrone consulted was Mamadou Kouassi–who made the years-long journey from Africa to European soil, witnessing prisoners being burned and beaten, and serving in slave labor as a mason on a Libyan villa. Some of what Kouassi saw did not make the final film such as traffickers repeatedly raping women along the route, and migrants–who can’t or wouldn’t provide traffickers with family contacts to extort–being driven back to the desert and left to die. Garrone explained that he left out some of this graphic violence in order to make the film a bit more watchable–and more likely to reach a larger audience. He added that some of the actual violence was so stark, brutal and over the top that he was afraid that at times it wouldn’t be believable to viewers.
Still, Garrone tried “to remain faithful” to the stories told him in general–"to the soul of the story.” He affirmed that a priority was “especially to not lose the joy that they [the migrants] have,” their incredible bravery and humanity. “They are victims of a system but still remain human and with a sense of humor.” They have “a human solidarity,” even in the face of great danger. “There is violence in the movie but also a life connected to the humanity of the characters.”
Garrone further noted that he had the real migrants connect with the actors on set to “help me to re-create this odyssey.” Garrone felt at times that the real migrants he brought in at different junctures throughout the process were “co-directing” the movie.
Another prime challenge for Garrone was working with a cast which spoke in primarily African dialects. He didn’t speak or understand their language yet had to direct their performances. While Garrone had a translator at his side, the writer-director often relied on the actors’ body language and tone to determine whether or not he was getting what he needed to tell the story.
Furthermore, Garrone was very concerned with the safety and well-being of his cast, particularly in action sequences such as when a migrant is seen falling from a speeding jeep in the desert. Other migrant passengers on this bumpy, perilous ride yell at the driver to stop but the vehicle speeds on, leaving the man behind in the middle of nowhere. The scene depicting the danger was dangerous in and of itself. Garrone and his team took every precaution to keep it safe for the actor who in the storyline is left to die, again underscoring what real-world migrants had seen or experienced.
Garrone is gratified over the Oscar nomination, especially for it calling further attention to Io Capitano, hopefully resulting in more people seeking out and seeing the film. One audience in particular is of importance to Garrone, who cited thousands of students in Italy being taken to morning cinema screenings by their teachers and schools. These students see kids like them with the same dreams and problems–in the case of Sarr and Fall, their dream is to become musicians. Students can relate to the migrants, can live the adventure through their eyes and see from a different perspective. Garrone observed that the film gives teachers an opportunity to show students “a page of contemporary history and to start to talk about the biggest drama of our time–migrants and history.” This helps students, the future generation, feel something that can only benefit society, affirmed Garrone: “Empathy.”
Io Capitano adds to a Garrone filmography which includes Gomorrah (2008) which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival; With Reality (2012) which too won the Cannes Grand Prix; Dogman, winner of the Best Actor prize at Cannes; and Pinocchio, which earned two Oscar nominations for Best Makeup & Hairstyling, and Best Costume Design.
