Io Capitano

It started on the bus – crossing from Mali to Niger – when the border patrol immediately saw through the forged passports and demanded fifty bucks or a trip to jail. It came into focus in the open bed of an overstuffed truck speeding through the Sahara Desert, a rough bump sending a man flying off into the sand, the driver not even slowing down. But it was the barefooted woman, trailing behind and then collapsing from the exhausting walk into Libya, that sends Senegalese teenager Seydou (Sarr) into a state of delirium. Desperately trying to help her along, she begins to float above him, and he guides her like a balloon, both of them laughing. Shaken out of his trance by his cousin Moussa (Fall), Seydou’s gaze finds the woman’s motionless body on a far off sand dune, left behind. This won’t be the last time Seydou tries to square an equation of senseless suffering with his imagination. The soldiers occupying a nearby prison are nearly upon them.

What drives Seydou and Moussa, these two teens from Dakar, to embark on such a harrowing journey, despite the repeated warnings of everyone around them, and what appears to be a stable home life? What else but the irresistible siren song of the West, of prosperity and opportunities. Also, teenagers don’t tend to listen to their elders, historically speaking. That their motivation is perfunctory (a vague desire to break into the music business is briefly mentioned) is a sign that director Matteo Garrone’s film, an Oscar nominee for Best International Feature, will be a broad depiction of the migrant story; the whole system of exploiters, opportunists, cutthroats, and torturers strip mining human dignity for profit, sprinkled with just enough benevolent souls to enable Seydou’s journey to continue.

For it is Seydou’s story – the cousins become separated in that Libyan prison, but don’t count Moussa out just yet – and Io Capitano’s strongest asset is Seydou Sarr’s performance. Aside from the requisite wide shots of sweeping desert, sea, and cityscapes marking the various stages of the journey, Garrone (the Italian director of Gomorrah and Tale of Tales, among others) keeps the camera close to Seydou, and Sarr’s skill at the subtle transformation of his emotional responses from, say, heartbreak to happiness (and back again) is incredibly compelling to watch. It is a demanding role, and the young actor absolutely kills it, elevating the film above its wistful, self-congratulatory tone. That tone reaches a ludicrous high note in the film’s surprisingly abrupt ending, when the coast of Sicily is sighted from the beleaguered, overcrowded boat that Seydou has had to pilot from Tripoli (he is the captain – it's right there in the title), and the pregnant woman on board has successfully delivered her baby. And the rescue helicopters arrive, and all’s well that ends well, I guess? Certainly, Seydou and his fellow migrants’ assimilation into Europe will be free from any hardship.