The epic journey of two young people who risk their lives chasing a dream. Nominated for an Oscar, the film, directed by the Roman director of Gomorrah e Pinocchio, arrives on TV in its original version on Monday 29 January at 9.15pm on Sky Cinema Uno, streaming on NOW and available on demand
Try going to Google Maps and looking for a route that goes from Dakar in Senegal to Tripoli in Libya passing through Mali and the Sahara desert. The very intelligent Maps algorithm will not be able to calculate how many kilometers you will have to travel but it will tell you that getting to your destination by car will take 4 days, without ever stopping.
I am Captain, The plot
This is the journey that Seydou (Seydou Sarr) decides to undertake together with his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall), both sixteen years old. Final destination: Europe. His mother orders him to stay home but how do you prevent a dream? For Seydou, the West means becoming a musical star and helping his family from a distance, even if those who know better advise him against leaving: death is lurking and Europe is not the happy continent you see on TV, it is a mirage where people even sleep on the street. But the boy doesn’t believe it and, after having received consent for the departure of his deceased ancestors thanks to the intercession of a sorcerer, he buys a “package” that is safe for him: a journey to the heart of Africa by caravan and by car, and Tripoli boarding a hydrofoil. In reality he will leave for hell: the Malian military will extort him to turn a blind eye to his fake passport; the bus journey will suddenly stop and all the passengers will be forced to cross the desert on foot, where some will lose their lives; the bandits will rob the cousin and take him away while the highly organized Libyan mafia – which systematically filters migrants’ access to the country, extorting money in exchange for freedom – will lock Seydou in a prison where he will be tortured and sold as a bricklayer. Thanks to his work, the boy will be free and will obtain the money needed to sail to Italy. But not on a vessel in perfect condition but on a dilapidated boat of which he will have to be the captain. Will he be able to reach the Sicilian coasts and save himself and the hundreds of passengers packed to capacity?
in-depth analysis
Venice 80, Garrone: “I tell stories, I don’t talk about politics”
Reverse the point of view
Matteo Garrone in his ninth film really takes us far. Not from his cinema which has always mixed documentary and fantasy cinema, recording of reality and formal rigor, but far from the observation point of the Western, Eurocentric, white spectator. What the film does is overturn our point of view, the one to which the news reports have accustomed us. For once, we spectators are not outside the boat passively watching the migrants disembark, but we are among the passengers, alongside Captain Seydou. We are migrants too.
Garrone and his screenwriters (Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini, Andrea Tagliaferri) they invented little or nothing. They collected and reworked precious testimonies from teenagers, now adults, who had the same experience as Seydou. Young people who, unlike their Western peers, are not free to legally cross Western borders. If they do so they risk death.
in-depth analysis
I Captain nominated for an Oscar, Garrone: “Great satisfaction”
Pinocchio black
If Garrone’s cinema had accustomed us to protagonists who in search of an improvement in their condition ultimately lose themselves, dehumanize themselves, self-destruct (The embalmer, Gomorrah, Dogman), it is true that with Pinocchio he embraced the point of view of a rebellious boy who, after a thousand vicissitudes, finds his way and embraces Geppetto again. And from this point of view I am Captain it can be read as a Pinocchio black, an African Bildungsroman: the young and naive Seydou, attracted by the Toyland of Europe, is deceived by the many foxes, cats and dogfish that he will meet along the way. A journey that will end with one of the most unforgettable final close-ups of the last 20 years.
in-depth analysis
I Captain by Garrone nominated for an Oscar: plot, cast, where to see it
First on Sky TV
In the running for the Oscar® as Best International Film, I CAPTAIN (Presented in competition at the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival and winner of the Silver Lion for best direction and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for the protagonist Seydou Sarr) comes on first TV in the original version on Monday 29 January at 9.15pm on Sky Cinema Uno streaming on NOW and available on demand.
in-depth analysis
I Captain, Garrone’s film comes out in US theaters on February 23rd
Cinema
Oscar 2024, the nominated titles for Best Foreign Film. PHOTO
Matteo Garrone’s film, included in the five candidates for the 2024 Oscar, will have to compete with other works of international importance acclaimed by critics. Here’s what you need to know about the nominated films with the release dates of those that haven’t yet arrived in Italian cinemas
Io Capitano, an Italian film included in the shortlist for the 2024 Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, begins its final march towards the coveted statuette which will end with the night of the presentation of the Academy Awards set for March 10th.
Matteo Garrone’s film, winner of the Silver Lion for best director at the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, was released in Italian cinemas on 7 September
Matteo Garrone has already received a lot of acclaim for the work he conceived, directed and wrote together with a team made up of three other authors: Gaudioso, Ceccherini and Tagliaferri. The Roman director learned of the nomination with joy: “It is a great satisfaction and we are happy that the adventure continues; in the hope that the film, and Seydou’s story, will be seen by an ever-increasing number of spectators around the world”
I Captain stars Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall, both originally from Dakar. The two are at the center of the dramatic epic of the escape from their country to reach Europe with all the dangers that the journey entails. Filmed in 2022 between Italy, Senegal and Morocco, it required the use of many extras. For his role Seydou Sarr received the Marcello Mastroianni Award in Venice