Io Capitano (15)
Directed by Matteo Garrone
 

 
AS this Tory government continues to pursue its unlawful and frankly inhumane Rwanda policy to deport asylum-seekers and immigrants, Matteo Garrone’s harrowing yet uplifting Oscar-nominated drama humanises them by showing the treacherous journeys they undertake in pursuit of a better life. 

The film is told through the eyes and perspective of two Senagalese teenage cousins, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall), who travel from Dakar to Italy in a bid to become pop stars in Europe and help their families back home. 

They secretly save all their money from their construction jobs to fund their trip, but their excitement and idealistic dreams of heading to Europe are soon knocked out of them by the brutal reality of their endeavour. 

Writer-director Garrone (Gomorra, Dogman) co-wrote the script with Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini and Andrea Tagliaferri, and it is based on the real-life stories of several young Africans who made the journey to Europe including Amara Fofana who became one of the film’s consultants. 

It is heartbreaking and a tough watch as these 16-year-old boys trek across the scorching Saharan desert seeing fellow migrants die in front of them, are then captured, tortured in dank north African prisons and trafficked by the Libyan mafia. Seydou ends up steering a boat, not fit for purpose, to Sicily packed with hundreds of men, women and children which is based on Fofana’s own experience. 

The film is acted mostly by non-professionals, including Sarr and Fall who are extraordinary. The pair are totally captivating. Sarr in particular is mesmerising, delivering a debut performance that commands the screen as though he were a veteran actor. 

This epic odyssey is part action adventure, part road movie and part coming-of-age drama, which explores human rights, and the great lengths people are prepared to travel to pursue their dream life. 

It is a stark reminder to this government and those that want to make “Britain great again,” especially Daily Mail readers, that asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants are human beings who deserve to be treated with humanity, and not as pawns in a game of non-empathetic far-right grandstanding. 

Out in cinemas on Friday.