The 2 youngsters on the display screen trudging by the infinite dunes of the Sahara on their solution to Europe have been actors. So have been the man migrants tortured in a bloodstained Libyan jail.
However to the younger man watching the film one current night in a suburb of Dakar, Senegal’s capital, the cinematic ordeal felt all too actual. His two brothers had undertaken the identical journey years in the past.
“That is why they refused to ship me cash to take that route,” stated Ahmadou Diallo, 18, a avenue cleaner. “As a result of they’d seen firsthand how harmful it’s.”
Critics within the West have praised the movie “Io Capitano” — nominated for the 2024 Academy Award for greatest worldwide characteristic movie — noting its visceral but tender take a look at migration to Europe from Africa. It’s now exhibiting in African nations, and is hitting near house in Senegal. That’s the place the 2 important characters within the film embark on an odyssey that epitomizes the goals and hardships of numerous extra hoping to make it overseas.
Final month, the movie’s crew and its director, Matteo Garrone, took “Io Capitano” to a dozen locations in Senegal the place migration isn’t fiction. They screened it in youth facilities, in colleges, even on a basketball court docket turned out of doors movie show in Guédiawaye, a suburb of Dakar, the place Mr. Diallo and a whole lot of others watched it at sundown on an enormous display screen.
“Io Capitano” tells the story of Seydou and Moussa, two endearing cousins who go away Dakar after months of planning, spending the entire financial savings they earned by straining work on a development website.
However what begins as an thrilling highway journey shortly turns into a deadly expedition because the youngsters discover themselves within the palms of careless smugglers, then underneath the management of armed robbers and merciless jailers, earlier than they attain the deadliest step of their travels, the crossing of the Mediterranean.
Seydou, the lead character, finally ends up captaining the ship taking them and a whole lot of different migrants to Italy. The film by no means reveals them reaching the shore, however when a helicopter from the Italian coast guard hovers over the boat, the viewer is tempted to consider that they are going to be rescued and that a part of their troubles are over.
On the basketball court docket, some gasped in horror when bandits opened hearth on a bunch of migrants on the display screen. Others hid their eyes with their head scarves throughout scenes of torture.
“Folks know there’s a threat to lose their lives” in searching for emigrate to Europe, Mr. Garrone stated. “However they haven’t seen what it’s like.”
Senegal’s youth make up nearly all of its 17 million folks, however its fast-growing financial system has struggled to supply them jobs with first rate pay. Hundreds go away yearly by the Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean, and lethal accidents are frequent. More and more, those that can afford it fly to Central America, hoping to succeed in the US that method.
Senegal’s new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has promised to enhance the financial system by financing small companies and strengthening traineeships in farming, fishing and industrial jobs. Pure fuel and oil reserves are anticipated to show the tiny coastal nation right into a hydrocarbon energy in Africa.
However in Guédiawaye, the place newly constructed homes sit on sandy streets subsequent to crumbling shelters crammed with flies and no entry to operating water, many younger males stated they weren’t anticipating main modifications.
Mr. Diallo, the road cleaner, stated he needed to affix his brothers in Paris. He confirmed movies on his telephone of himself and dozens of others within the Atlantic final summer season, throughout one in all his two earlier — and unsuccessful — makes an attempt to succeed in Europe.
A couple of ft away, Barra Gassama, 18, watched “Io Capitano” with generally teary eyes. A decade in the past, he stated, he picked up the telephone at house to listen to from a stranger that his older brother had died on his solution to Spain. “That decision modified our lives,” he stated in a whisper. “This jogs my memory a lot of him,” he added, staring on the display screen.
Regardless of his brother’s loss of life, Mr. Gassama’s mom later inspired him to attempt to go away, too. However he stated he had as a substitute chosen to attempt to make it at house, working laborious as a baker, incomes as much as $6 a day, six days per week.
Within the film, Seydou and Moussa go away Dakar with out telling their households. However a few of these watching the movie stated they have been having open conversations with their family members about migration.
Pape Alioune Ngom, 18, a welder, stated just a few hours earlier than the screening that he was making an attempt to influence his dad and mom to let him go to Europe. He swore that he wouldn’t go away with out their blessing. “What’s there for us right here?” he requested. “All of us have migration in thoughts.”
Research have proven that individuals aspiring emigrate usually ignore warnings concerning the risks of making an attempt to enter nations illegally. However Mr. Garrone, the director, stated the film wasn’t meant to influence folks to not undertake the journey.
“I’m largely hoping to assist younger folks in Senegal understand that after they’ve left their house, they develop into a part of a system that they’ll’t actually get out of,” he stated.
To depict the system of smugglers and exploitation, Mr. Garrone labored with Mamadou Kouassi, a social employee now working with migrants in Italy, who spent three and a half years making an attempt to succeed in Europe from his native Ivory Coast. Mr. Kouassi’s experiences impressed most of Seydou’s and Moussa’s story line within the film.
Mr. Kouassi additionally attended the screening, the place he stared on the spectators who have been laughing on the two younger heroes making an attempt to cover money inside their our bodies earlier than starting their trek by the Sahara.
“They don’t know how Europe and Italy are treating us on the opposite facet,” Mr. Kouassi stated.
The primary tragedy within the film adopted shortly after, when a migrant fell off a pickup truck and the motive force stored racing within the desert, to the horror of the opposite passengers grabbing onto picket sticks to keep away from assembly the identical destiny.
The viewers fell silent.
Seydou Sarr, 19, and Moustapha Fall, 20, the 2 actors who play the cousins within the film, have been touring movie festivals within the West, sporting designer garments on the Oscars and chilling in luxurious motels throughout Europe, a world away from the lives in Senegal they themselves left just a few years in the past. Their journey was just a little totally different; they have been solid within the movie in Dakar, and later moved to Italy, the place Mr. Garrone lives.
Mr. Sarr, who gained the most effective younger actor award on the Venice Movie Pageant, stated he needed to proceed appearing.
For now, they each stay in Rome with Mr. Garrone’s mom, and Mr. Garrone stated he nervous about them. “They stand up at 3 p.m., and my mom does the cooking and all the pieces for them,” he stated. “They’re children.”
After the screening, Ndeye Khady Sy, the actress starring as Seydou’s mom, urged the viewers to remain in Senegal. “You possibly can succeed right here,” she stated.
However Mr. Ngom, the welder, had left the basketball grounds.
So had Mr. Diallo, the road cleaner, who stated he would attempt reaching Europe for the third time this summer season.
