Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone does a good job telling the story in his new film: I captain, the moving story of two young Senegalese migrants during their nightmarish journey to Italy.
This poignant drama was recently nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film after winning the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival. It is loosely based on the true story of Fofana Amara, a 15-year-old Guinean who was imprisoned in Sicily after being forced to drive a refugee boat from Libya to Italy.
Moi Capitaine follows the journey of Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall), two 16-year-old Senegalese friends and cousins who decide to leave their homeland without warning their respective families in order to realize their dream of starting a new life in Europe.
But this journey soon turns into a nightmare. After being betrayed by smugglers and corrupt customs officials, Seydou and Moussa are separated after a long and difficult desert crossing.
Seydou will end up in a Libyan prison, where he will be tortured and then sold into slavery. After weeks of hard work, he is released and goes to Tripoli, where boats full of migrants leave every day for Italy.
Magical realism
Too often, stories about African migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean come to us through headlines reporting shipwrecks of the makeshift boats transporting them to Europe.
With Me Captain, Matteo Garrone (Dogman, Gomorra) makes us discover, with a mix of realism and poetry, the atrocities faced by migrants who risk everything, including their lives, to undertake this dangerous journey.
Although the film's subject matter is harsh and often violent, the touching story of the friendship between the two young heroes illuminates this powerful and moving story.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Me Captain, a film directed by Matteo Garrone and starring Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall and Doodou Sagna. On the screen.