Io Capitano

The latest film from Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone is a heartrending story of the end of innocence, seen through the horrors of immigration from West Africa to Libya to catch a dangerous boat to Italy. Natural dangers include the Sahara Desert; man-made dangers include extortion, imprisonment, and even torture if caught with false passports and any cash. National borders create both predators and prey.

Io Capitano follows two Senegalese cousins, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall). They are bright-eyed and determined to make their fortunes in Europe to send money back to their families. Theirs are youthful, noble, painfully naive ambitions that are poignantly realised as they come up against the harshness and inhumanity encountered on their travels. They are not cyphers for a wider struggle, but fully fleshed characters with their own dreams and goals. While fellow emigrants’ stories are not elucidated, the definition of Io Capitano’s central characters alludes to hundreds of similar stories, some far more desperate than the boys’ familial wishes but none unworthy of a chance at a new life.

The meaning of Io Capitano’s title does not become clear until a harrowing final act that pits the young men’s determination to hold onto their humanity as the mendacity and greed of those profiting from emigrants’ desperation reaches previously unfathomable lows. With increasingly draconian immigration laws coming into force across Europe and North America, Garrone’s film reads as a plea for humanity – after all, Seydou and Moussa retain theirs throughout unthinkably dire circumstances.