IO CAPITANO – Review

The countdown is in its final days. No, we’re not talking about the arrival of Spring, but rather Hollywood’s biggest night, the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday. So, it’s a big surprise, and a big aid to those vieing in several offices’ “Oscar pools”, that a nominee is getting a wider release this Friday. The category in question is Best International Feature Film, and this “pulls a hat trick’ as it’s co-production of Italy, France, and Belgium. Fitting, as the subject matter affects those and many countries, even ours, the US, even factoring into the big political campaigns. And somehow this film is a personal story at the center of the debate with its focus on a young man, still a teenager, who assumes the title IO CAPITANO.

That lad is a Senegalese sixteen-year-old Seydou (Seydou Sarr) who spends his days with BFF/cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall), either playing football on the dusty streets of a Dakar ghetto or picking up the occasional “odd job”. And what do they do with their “salaries”? The duo makes a pact: they’ll “pool” their funds to escape the country and travel to Italy. land construction jobs, and send money back to their families. But they’ve got to be secretive, even to those families. Seydou even lies to his mother (Ndeye Khady Sy), who suspects that he plans to leave her and his many siblings. Then, in the hours before dawn, the duo gather their savings and embark on the long journey. It’s not long before their funds are drained by a series of “vultures” including a maker of phony IDs, corrupt soldiers, and a mule that sells space on a transport through the deserts of Niger. The trek across the dunes becomes a “death march” when the truck breaks down miles before the border of Libya, where the group is arrested and Seydou is separated from Moussa. In a desolate fortress, Seydou is tortured by his captors to get a contact phone number and demand a ransom. All seems hopeless until he is befriended by an older man, Martin (Issaka Sawagodo), who volunteers them to work at a wealthy estate. From there, they go to Tripoli to work on a new high-rise being built. Ther, Seydou hears of another Senegalese teen. Could it be Moussa? And will they resume the journey to the “promised land” of Italy? But how will they cross the sea to realize their dream?

We’re drawn into this harrowing modern fable mainly due to the remarkable lead performances of several screen newcomers. However, the film truly rises on the shoulders of the gifted Sarr who imbues Seydou with youthful bravado, humanity, and vulnerability. He’s the kid brother or headstrong son we want to embrace and protect. Sarr shows us that innocent enthusiasm as he shares his dreams of a bright future until the evils of the world begin to quickly demolish them. In the third act, Sarr shows us how the pressures (truly life and death) weigh him down, almost aging him in years rather than two or three months. And somehow he retains his compassion, especially with those in need during the desert slog. Fall is a terrific partner to him in the story’s first half, prodding his cousin into action and making impetuous choices. Later Fall shows us that Moussa yearns for adulthood, but still clings to his playground pal. Luckily, they have encounters with a few nurturing elders. Sy is the family rock, but we can see that dread across her face as she believes that her precious firstborn may be “lost to the world”. And the true “guardian angel” is Sawagodo’s world-weary Martin who may see a flash of his own “lost boy” in the hopeless, but not helpless Seydou.

Skillfully putting a human spin on the political “hot button” of migrants is director and co-writer Matteo Garrone. He uses the stark landscapes to illustrate the overwhelming odds against survival for all those seeking a better life. His real strength may be in depicting the banal cruelty of the many “mules” and mercenaries who don’t see these travelers as people, but as prey to be fleeced and tossed aside. The sequences of Seydou trying to survive the brutality of the prison in Libya are harrowing and heartwrenching. We feel the dread since his family cannot afford any extortion on top of the despair he’s already inflicted on them. This builds up to the gripping nautical climax as Seydour is nearly drowning in responsibility rather than the salty sea. But Garrone gifts us a bit of beauty as he shows us Seydou’s “escape’ via his imagination (the desert dream is hauntingly moving). And he delivers a much-needed perspective on a problem that’s more than just a “campaign point”. It’s the passionate plea for kindness that lifts the sails of IO CAPITANO.

3 Out of 4

IO CAPITANO is now in select theatres and it screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas beginning on Friday, March 8, 2024.