I, Captain: Journey to the End of Hell (review)

Matteo Garrone creates a harsh and colorful fresco following the journey of a young migrant who leaves Senegal to cross the Mediterranean.

We weren’t expecting Matteo Garrone in this area. Very far from his native Italy, the director of Gomorra Here follows the journey of Seydou, a young Senegalese who left Dakar with a friend to realize his dreams of the West. But his odyssey will turn into a nightmare: Seydou will come across fraudulent smugglers, be ransomed by the army then tortured in Libyan prisons before setting sail on a makeshift boat to cross the Mediterranean… Me, Captain is therefore a hellish journey, but coupled with an initiatory story. Because Garrone especially tells the story of the loss of innocence of his two teenagers who go from joy to disillusionment as they confront the madness of men. Refusing the socio-pensum or the edifying testimony, he shows migration in an unprecedented way – sometimes very harsh, often very violent – ​​through the eyes of those who experience it. And by putting faces to numbers, he gives back their humanity to these thousands of men, women and children who leave each year for a fantasized elsewhere. We are therefore far, very far, from the lands surveyed by Garrone until then. Yet, Me, Captain strangely works as a synthesis of all his cinema. Frequent dreamlike escapes recall his obsession with the world of fables (we think of his Pinocchio or to Tale of tales), while the mixture between documentary harshness and the freedom of fiction, evoke his very first Roman films (which already confronted the fate of migrants). It relies above all on an exceptional cast and the appearance of young Seydou Sarr is one of the most astonishing recent discoveries.

Of Matteo Garrone. With Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo… Duration 2h02. Released January 3, 2024