Io Cap­i­tano review – dis­as­so­ci­a­tion turned sur­re­al fantasy

The case of Sene­galese migrant Ibrahi­ma Bah, who has been found guilty of gross neg­li­gence manslaugh­ter after seek­ing asy­lum in the UK, has recent­ly made head­lines. He was cho­sen to steer the small boat on which some of his fel­low pas­sen­gers died, and feared his life would be in dan­ger if he did not. Accord­ing to news reports his con­vic­tion is unprecedented.

One of the char­ac­ters in Ital­ian film­mak­er Mat­teo Garrone’s (Gomor­rah, Dog­man) com­pas­sion­ate Home­r­ic odyssey, which fol­lows two young men from Dakar who dream of a bet­ter life in Europe and embark on a ter­ri­fy­ing jour­ney, is faced with the exact same conun­drum as Bah. Gar­rone was advised by three peo­ple who had made a sim­i­lar voy­age and in Io Cap­i­tano he threads togeth­er the real-life sto­ries to illus­trate the gru­elling cross­ing from a migrant’s perspective.

The film begins in a colour­ful and cosy place where we meet Sey­dou (Sey­dou Sarr) and his fam­i­ly, includ­ing his moth­er and sis­ters, as they plan their out­fits for a dance per­for­mance. He is the only man in the house and it is clear he has press­ing mat­ters on his mind. With his cousin Mous­sa (Moustapha Fall) he has been sav­ing mon­ey to make his way to Italy and the time to leave is com­ing soon. Mon­ey is tight, but they are get­ting by. Their moti­va­tions are inno­cent and they sin­cere­ly believe they will have more oppor­tu­ni­ties abroad.

Gar­rone inten­tion­al­ly sets the film off as a voy­age of dis­cov­ery for the two boys, with uplift­ing music and laugh­ter, but the real­i­ty is grim. Bit­ing real­ist social com­men­tary and mag­i­cal real­ism sit side by side as excite­ment turns to dread and hor­rif­ic scenes of tor­ture and dehu­man­i­sa­tion play out. Sequences set in a Libyan prison are par­tic­u­lar­ly bru­tal. When it all becomes too much for the boys, Gar­rone turns their dis­as­so­ci­a­tion into sur­re­al fan­ta­sy using folk­lore and the desert as beau­ti­ful backdrop.

Com­par­isons to Mati Diop’s Atlantics which also took inspi­ra­tion from Greek mythol­o­gy and Wolof folk­lore can be made. She turned the sto­ry of young Sene­galese men mak­ing the treach­er­ous cross­ing into a super­nat­ur­al tale of long­ing and despair, and took alarm­ing sta­tis­tics into account with the fore­gone con­clu­sion of death. Gar­rone takes a dif­fer­ent, less rad­i­cal approach by giv­ing his char­ac­ters hope and, in turn, the audi­ence some­thing to cling on to in terms of a will they/won’t they make it narrative.

The superb cast­ing of the two lead co-stars, who were only told the out­come of their char­ac­ters sto­ry­lines on the day of shoot­ing, real­ly buoys the film. Sarr and Fall are won­der­ful young actors and excel in dis­play­ing joy and fear, pre­sent­ing a warm­ing and believ­able broth­er­ly dynam­ic. Sarr’s per­for­mance in par­tic­u­lar is so mes­meris­ing­ly cred­i­ble that even as the film plays out to a famil­iar beat his star shines brightly.

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

By becom­ing a mem­ber you can sup­port our inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism and receive exclu­sive essays, prints, week­ly film rec­om­men­da­tions and more.