Io Capitano and Illegal Immigration

 

 

 

Io Capitano (2024)

Directed by Matteo Garrone

Cohen Media Group. 121 minutes, R (gore, torture)

In Wolof and French with subtitles.

★★★★★

 

North Americans are often fixated on south-to-north immigration and forget that peoples from all over are on the move. They emigrate for a variety of reasons, from climate change to war, but poverty is usually the major reason. Io Capitano begins in West Africa where two teenaged Senegalese cousins, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) dream of going to Europe. They drastically underestimate how difficult such a journey could be, but despite caring families, it’s easy to appreciate how Europe might seem a better option than life at the bottom in Dakar, Senegal. The boys work at odd jobs, hock goods on the street, and literally bury their earnings in the sand. They sneak off into the night when Seydou thinks they have plenty of money to get to Italy.

 

It might have been if the boys didn’t have to buy forged passports, pay bribes, encounter thieving gangs, and shell out the extortive rates for guides and drivers. It would also have been easier were there stable and honest governments between Senegal and Italy. Instead, their stash is severely depleted before they make it from Senegal into Mali. At each step, Seydou and Moussa experience harrowing border crossings and nightmarish treks across barren lands where marauding nomads and cutthroat bandits are a law unto themselves. In Niger, they are tossed into open vehicles and bounce their way across the rutted and shifting sands of the Sahara in a desperate attempt to outrun pursuers. Fall out of the truck and you will die; no one can stop to rescue you. Riders are promised passage to Libya, but the trucks halt, unload, and the sizable human caravan is turned over to a guide who wordlessly hikes ahead with the same attitude of stop and you’re on your own. Director Matteo Garrone and cinematographer Paolo Carnera punctuate the rigors of such a flight through what seem to be splashes of magical realism but are actually walking dream hallucinations brought on by exhaustion.

 

 In Libya, they are stopped by brutal men who demand that they turn over all of their money. They have a novel way of uncovering those who claim they are broke but have hidden their money in their rectums. The cousins are separated, with Moussa tossed into a Libyan prison that makes Abu Ghraib seem like Club Med. It doubles as a torture chamber, as Seydou discovers first hand. He survives but is sold a slave. Luckily, he and a French-speaking prisoner who is a skilled bricklayer are chosen to build a fence and fountain for a vain, rich Libyan who eventually allows them to go to the coastal city of Tripoli, where there are expatriate Senegalese communities.

 

Will Seydou and Mussa ever reunite? Will either of them make a successful crossing of the Mediterranean Sea? The attempt at the latter gives the film it’s title. Io Capitano means “I am the captain.” Seydou doesn’t have enough money to pay for a voyage, but he is allowed to try by a–shall we say sarcastically–enterprising individual with a rust bucket boat who has collected a large number of paid fares to be ferried to Italy. He really doesn’t much care if the refugees get there or not and isn’t of a mind to make the trip himself. The deal is that Seydou can board the ship if he agrees to sail it himself. Remember, he is 16-years-old. Has he ever piloted a boat of any sort? That would be a hard no!

 

At this juncture I should mention that Il Capitano is not based on a true story. It has been called a “Homeric tale” and shares similarities with The Odyssey (as it does with other immigration sagas such El Norte, Green Border, and the classic Black Girl). By doing a mashup of numerous dangers involved in what we often glibly call “Illegal immigration,” Garrone makes us see the inherent inhumanity of how outsiders are treated without conforming to a predetermined conclusion. In my estimation, his was a bold and effective strategy. The film was nominated for a Best International Feature at the 2024 Oscars. It did not win, but carried off numerous prizes elsewhere. Homeric tales are filled with heroes, fallen warriors, and victims. Which will be the fates of Seydou and Moussa?

 

Rob Weir