There is Mamadou Kouassi from the Ivory Coast, he is a grown man, 15 years ago he made the journey from his country, crossing the sub-Saharan desert in Niger, arriving in Libya, enduring torture and then embarking on the sea. Now he lives in Caserta and helped Matteo Garrone to make Io, Capitano, the film in cinemas from tomorrow with 01 in 203 copies and today applauded in competition at Venice 80 and which could most likely be the Italian candidate for the Oscars, even more true. And then there are Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall, the two Senegalese protagonists, actors by chance, wonderful faces with a longing for Europe in their eyes and the first autographs to sign. And there would also be Fofana Amara, the real captain who at the age of 15 found himself driving a boat of 250 migrants like him without ever having driven one and I really screamed Io Capitano: he now lives in Belgium, married to a woman he met in the center of reception in Catania, they have children but not yet a residence permit and for this reason he was unable to arrive in Venice despite having inspired the story and collaborated on the film. Io, Capitano is an updated Pinocchio, a mix with Gomorrah (as the director says quoting two of his films) and is also “a contemporary Odyssey, in which the two boys are a symbol of their globalized generation, part of a migration that never it is only that of fleeing wars and climatic catastrophes. 70% of Africans are young – Garrone explains to ANSA – and have the legitimate desire to improve their lives, to be free to move around. It is a fact of justice: because are their European peers allowed to go on holiday to Senegal by plane and they, on the contrary, have to face a journey of hope without knowing if they will arrive alive?”. Garrone specifically chose Senegal and as protagonists two poor minors with dignity who have the internet and want to go to Europe to get better, work, send money home, become football players and rappers. “It takes courage to make that journey and I myself – says Mamadou – was tempted to go back but then I decided to risk it”. His story inspired Garrone as well as that of the young captain and to add truth to the two protagonists “who had never left Senegal” he never gave the script, “every day they came to the set and it was a discovery, as if they lived there “adventure told in the film, with moments of joy and those of despair”, says the director who shot in Casablanca, Dakar and in the sea in front of Marsala. What do these Africans wish for? “That Europeans understand us, that they understand our desire for freedom which is universal, the same as Western kids. And that there are safe entry channels, that Europe does not give money to countries like Libya and Tunisia that trample on human rights And also that the spectators see our suffering. Today – they say – it is a great emotion”. Garrone’s reverse shot, “looking at Europe from the opposite side, that of Africa – concludes the director – is a choice that highlights a world of people with their dreams, desires, people not numbers like those of counting dead on the Mediterranean route to which we are accustomed”. Movie stops before arrival and after? “I don’t know if I’m going to tell it but I won’t go into the political merits, as a director I tell a story of injustice on an ethical and universal level”
2023-09-06 14:53:11
#Mostra #Cinema #Venezia #Garrone #stories #dont #talk #politics #DIRECT
