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Away from political tensions, the figure of the immigrant has become increasingly present in films in which he is a hero, such as the film “Io Capitano”, which has recently been shown in several European countries by the Italian director Matteo Garrone.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s film “Green Border,” about the plight of migrants stranded on the border between Poland and Belarus, will be screened on February 7.
In French cinema, the theme of immigration is the focus of the film “La Tate Froade,” which opens on January 17th and is about migrant smugglers in the Alps.
Fifteen years after the film “Gomorrah” about the mafia in Naples, Garrone chose in his new film the poignant story of two young Senegalese people linked by family ties in an epic way. They decide to leave their country and move to Europe to improve their lives, embarking on a dangerous journey through Africa and the Mediterranean. .
“Io Capitano” won several awards at the recent Venice Film Festival and was selected by Italy to represent it in the Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film. This film has a very powerful symbolic meaning in a country where a far-right government is in power and which is at the forefront of the issue of migrants trying to reach Europe.
The film tells the story of Senegalese teenagers Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Mustapha Fall), two relatives who wordlessly decide to leave their family to try their luck in Europe. The film changed the life of its protagonist, Seydou Sarr, a 19-year-old Senegalese, for whom it was his first cinematic experience, for which he won the Best New Actor award in Venice.
“I dreamed of becoming a footballer, but God’s will takes precedence,” Seydou Sarr said in an interview with Agence France-Presse in Paris.
The film “Eu Capitano” was shot in Senegal, but also in Morocco, where Seydou Sarr met migrants stranded there after many trials.
He says: “What motivated me most to make this film was that I told myself that Europeans could come to help these people who have been stuck in Morocco for about ten years (…) The film is also important for Africa to show what is happening there.”
When the topic of immigrants and immigration is present in the media and political discourse in Europe, Matteo Garrone preferred to address it in his film without creating an atmosphere of misery, but without ignoring the risks to life during the difficult crossing paths. The two young men eventually arrived in Italy on a very crowded boat.
These people “carry a contemporary epic within themselves,” says the 55-year-old director, who has documented extensively on location, especially in Senegal. “When I wrote this story, I was thinking of a great adventure that takes us back to Conrad, to Jack London or Homer,” he said.
He added: “I made this film not with the aim of changing the world, but rather to give the audience the opportunity to experience this adventure from a different perspective. Behind the numbers are people who have dreams like us.”
Like Green Border, Io Capitano questions the responsibility of Europeans towards the situation of immigrants. According to the United Nations, crossing the Mediterranean is the most dangerous sea migration route in the world, with more than 2,571 deaths in 2023.
In Italy, the film was shown in several schools, as Matteo Garrone confirmed.
But sometimes film screenings are not without controversy. In 2022, the release of “Angaje,” a French film about immigrants in the Alps, was accompanied by a hate campaign against its director Emilie Frisch.
Agnieszka Holland (75 years old), who won the Special Jury Prize in Venice for her film “Green Board”, was also exposed to violent attacks by Polish nationalists and death threats before she lost power in Warsaw in the autumn.
(AFP)
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