2024-01-01 11:09:09
Away from the political tension, the character of the immigrant has become increasingly present in cinematic films in which he is a hero, such as the film “Io Capitano,” which recently began showing in a number of European countries by Italian director Matteo Garrone.
On February 7, the film “Green Border” by Polish director Agnieszka Holland, regarding the plights of migrants stranded on the border between Poland and Belarus, will be screened.
As for French cinema, the issue of immigration is at the heart of the film “La Tate Froade,” which opens on January 17, and deals with migrant smugglers in the Alps.
Fifteen years following the film “Gomorra” regarding the mafia in Naples, Garrone chose in his new film to depict in an epic way the poignant story of two young Senegalese who are related by family ties. They decide to leave their country and move to Europe to improve their lives, so they embark on a dangerous journey across Africa and the Mediterranean. .
“Io Capitano” won a number of awards at the recent Venice Film Festival, and Italy chose it to represent it in the race for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This film has a very expressive symbolic significance in a country where an extreme right-wing government is in power, and which is on the front line regarding 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 decide to leave their family without saying a word to try their luck in Europe. The film changed the life of its lead actor, 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 being a football player, but God’s will” prevails, Seydou Sarr said in an interview with Agence France-Presse in Paris.
The film “Eu Capitano” was filmed in Senegal, but also in Morocco, where Seydou Sarr met migrants stranded there, following many ordeals.
He says, “What motivated me most to make this film was that I told myself that Europeans might come to help these people who have been stuck in Morocco for regarding ten years (…) The film is also important for Africa to show what is happening there.”
If 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 an atmosphere of misery, but without overlooking the risks to life during the arduous crossing paths. The two young men ended up arriving in Italy on a very crowded boat.
These people “carry a contemporary epic,” says the 55-year-old director, who has documented extensively on location, especially in Senegal. “When writing this story, I was thinking of a grand adventure that takes us back to Conrad, to Jack London or Homer,” he said.
He added, “I did not make this film with the aim of changing the world, but rather to give the audience the opportunity to live this adventure from a different perspective. Behind the numbers there are people who have dreams like us.”
Like Green Border, Io Capitano questions the responsibility of Europeans towards the condition of immigrants. According to the United Nations, crossing the Mediterranean is the most dangerous maritime migration route in the world, with more than 2,571 deaths recorded in 2023.
In Italy, the film was shown in several schools, as confirmed by Matteo Garrone.
But sometimes film screenings do not pass without causing controversy. In 2022, the release of “Angaje”, a French film regarding immigrants in the Alps, was accompanied by a hate campaign directed once morest its director, Emilie Frisch.
As for Agnieszka Holland (75 years old), who won the Special Jury Prize in Venice for her film “Green Board,” she was also subjected to violent attacks from Polish nationalists before they lost power this fall in Warsaw, and death threats.
(AFP)
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