Jane Campion defends Matteo Garrone’s “Io Capitano,” the Italian film nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
The film narrates the Homeric journey of two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe in search of a better life. The film depicts their plight realistically through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya, and the dangers of the sea.
in diverse‘s Reviewing, critic Jay Lodge called “Io Capitano” the director’s “strongest and most completely satisfying filmmaking since his international breakthrough with Gomorrah 15 years ago.” The drama, which won at the Venice Film Festival awards for best director and best emerging actor for its star Seydou Sarr, is the strongest Italian Oscar contender in recent memory. The film, which also won Best European Film in San Sebastian, will be released in the US on February 23 by Cohen Media Group.
Below are excerpts from a conversation between Campion and Garrone about the various complexities he faced in making “Io Capitano.” Watch the full video above.
Jane Campion: This is a very beloved film, and I think anyone who watches it can’t help but connect with these main protagonists in your film. In particular, Sidhu, you know, who is the capitano who is at the heart of your story. His honesty, his empathy, his performance are heart-opening, it’s beautiful. It’s really cool. And I have a lot of questions about how you met these boys. Without them, I can’t imagine what the movie would be like and I’m sure you know that. You’re writing on their shoulders, really.
Matteo Garrone: When you find an actor like Sidhu, it’s a gift. He is a bit lucky because he belongs to a family of actors. His mother and sister were actresses in this small town, near Dakar, but his dream was to become a footballer, so he didn’t want to go to the casting party. His mother went to pick him up while he was playing soccer, to force him to attend the casting ceremony, and he finally came. It was so pure, so authentic. Very human.
Campion: Yes. The pure word was really good.
Jaroni: Yes, innocent. I also made a lot of phone calls in Europe: in Paris, in Italy, but it was completely different. It was important for the script to have someone who knows nothing about Europe, who dreams of Europe like the character we wrote. Exactly the same way. They dreamed of discovering this world. The actors I chose had never left Senegal, and I decided not to give them the script. So they didn’t know what would happen and they didn’t know whether they would succeed in reaching Europe or not.
Campion: Oh, my God! She did this to attract attention to tell us what was going to happen.
Jaroni: They didn’t know, because there was a subtle connection between the character and the person. And I always shot in chronological order. So, from the first scene to the end, the actor can follow his character’s journey. I told them (what will happen) day after day.
Campion: Where did the idea for this type of film start? What really made me want to watch this movie was – well, it’s a movie about immigration, and it’s very hard to get. It’s a topic I’m really interested in, but it’s hard to get the inside story on it.
Jaron: This is correct.
Campion: It’s never been told from the point of view – very successfully – of people actually planning to cross. What I really liked about the story too is that it’s not told from the point of view of like, “Oh, look, if they don’t go they’ll die.” It’s like, you know, they’re going to go and maybe die on the way. So he’s not serious. It’s a true horror adventure story with a lot of heart and really interesting adventures along the way. It was a kind of odyssey.
Jaroni: definitely. It took me time to decide to make this film because it was very difficult and also because it was not from my culture. So I was worried about entering into a (narrative) code that wasn’t mine, and falling into dangerous stereotypes. So it took years. In the end, I decided to do a reverse photography of what we are used to seeing. Yesterday, 60 people died in the Mediterranean. We always see the image of the boat, and always from our point of view. But what we miss is their perspective. Reverse shot. the other side.
Campion: What you say is true. It’s not from your culture, but it’s also from your culture, because of course these people come to Italy. It is important to know more about this.
Jaron: Yes, and we are also Italian, we are immigrants, so he speaks for everyone. It is a universal idea, traveling in search of a better life. It’s an archetype.
The transcript of this conversation has been edited for clarity.