Io Capitano (2023)
Director: Matteo Garrone Run Time: 122 min. Release Year: 2023
Starring: Doodou Sagna, Hichem Yacoubi, Issaka Sawadogo, Moustapha Fall, Seydou Sarr
Country: Italy, Belgium, France
Language: Wolof, French with English subtitles
About the film:
Nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, nominated for Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language at the 81st Golden Globes, and winner of both the Silver Lion for Best Director and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor (for newcomer Seydou Sarr) at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.
“A grand, honestly felt emotional sweep… Garrone’s most robust, purely satisfying filmmaking since his international breakthrough with Gomorrah 15 years ago.”
—Guy Lodge, Variety
In this acclaimed film which won top directing and acting prizes at the Venice Film Festival, writer-director Garrone presents a “reverse shot” of the immigration experience while unfurling an epic, cinematographically magnificent odyssey from West Africa to Italy. The story is told through the mind’s eye and experiences of two Senegalese teenagers living in Dakar who yearn for a brighter future in Europe. Yet between their dreams and reality lies a treacherous journey through a labyrinth of checkpoints, the scorched Saharan desert, a fetid North African prison, and the vast waters of the Mediterranean where thousands have died packed inside vessels barely fit for passage.
About the filmmaker:
Matteo Garrone is a film director, writer, and producer born in Rome in 1968. One of Italy’s most celebrated modern filmmakers, Garrone began his career tackling themes of immigration and dark obsession. An art school graduate, he made his leap into directing with the award-winning short Silhouette (1996) just before his debut feature-length film Land in Between (1996). Expanding his vision towards everything from mafia epics and reality TV fables to fairytale re-imaginings, his directorial range also reaches a naturalistic style in Guests (1998), documentary in Welcome Holy Spirit (1997), and noirish-drama in The Embalmer (2002) – each film maintaining his run of critical hits. His film Gomorrah (2008), a multi-layered insight into Naples’ criminal underworld, launched him to international fame and won the Grand Prix at Cannes. His next film, Reality (2012), won the same accolade, while the ambitious Tale of Tales (2015) saw Garrone embrace the English language and cast Hollywood stars for the first time with equally acclaimed results.
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