 by director Matteo Garrone won the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice Film Festival){kind=link}
In the autumn of 2013, around 368 people died in the sea close to the shores of Lampedusa in an attempt to reach fortress Europe. Never again, was said. Ten years later, little has changed. Only in the year 2023 more than 2.500 people were drawn in the Mediterranean Sea. Due to natural disasters caused by climate change and the political instability of many African and Middle Eastern countries, the number of migrants will likely increase over the next few years. In the meantime, Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, is fighting with the other European heads of state to avoid their responsibilities. They blackmail each other as if they are talking about house chores or homework, and do not seem concerned, or even aware, that it is the life or death of thousands of people they are determining. Surprisingly, or maybe not, around the same time, the uplifting epic Me Captain (Io Capitano) by director Matteo Garrone won the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice Film Festival. How could a movie about two Senegalese teenagers trying to reach Italy via sea, win one of the major European film festivals, while the Italian government is cracking down on migration?
Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and his cousin Moustapha (Moustapha Fall) are sixteen. They enjoy a simple life made of soccer games, school, partying, and family time in what seems Dakar, Senegal’s capital. As every teenager on this earth, they have a dream: to become famous professional rapper. To achieve this dream, they have a plan: reach Italy. After having worked for months to save money for the trip, Seydou and Moustapha decide to take on the long journey for the Sub-Sahara to Italy. Despite both Seydous’ mothers and a returnee’s disapproval, the guys feel safe having received their ancestors’ blessing. What starts as an almost funny road movie, revealing the teenager’s clumsiness and inexperience, soon turns into a dramatic odyssey punctuated with death and violence. Its height is reached in Libya’s detention camps, where despite the permeating brutality, Seydou finds a friend, or rather a father, who helps him get out and continue his journey.
Over the years, director Garrone seems to have built his career on glamorizing people’s sufferance and misery, a fine art of which he become a master after his breakthrough with Gomorra in 2008 and the great success of Dogman in 2018. Me Captain is no exception, with the aggravating circumstance of winking an eye to the new Italian fascist government. On the one hand, in this movie, his great sense of rhythm and space, as well as his sensitivity and ability in picking and directing outstanding unprofessional actors are evident. On the other, there are many aspects that leave a sense of bitterness in the spectator’s mouth, especially in the well-informed public. After having absorbed the great uplift of a happy end, with its beautiful photography by DOP Paolo Carnera, the shallowness and clichés of the plot become evident.
First of all, the stereotypical depiction of African people. Especially women, in this case Seydou’s sisters are always beautiful, colorfully dressed while dancing and singing around a fire. A topos that contemporary male Italian directors seem to love, see Discoboy by Abbruzzese who was presented earlier this year at Berlinale. Second, in the middle of the movie there are a few oneiric scenes of Seydou flying. Typical of Western African Cinema, they have here been culturally appropriated by Garrone who reproduces imaginary words he doesn’t master. The comparison with Banal & Adama by Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy presented at Cannes last spring, is unavoidable and brings to the fore Garrone’s mimicry. In Banal & Adama, the young director oneirically narrates a sinister love story in a desert devastated by climate change, giving the Italian director a lecture on authenticity and cultural appropriation. Another issue in Me Captain, is that there is no mention at all of the climate crisis causing coastal erosion and forcing Senegalese fisher’s villages to migrate. No doubt that following the dreams of two teenagers, in which the spectators can recognize themselves, has huge narrative potential. Besides being a right statement about equality: everyone has the right to move freely according to their desires, independently of their country of origin. However, there is also the echo of right-wing Italian anti-migration political discourse arguing that migrants are actually doing well in their home country and shouldn’t be allowed to enter Europe because they are not endangered. Intentional or not, this unfortunate coincidence is not easy to ignore.
Last and foremost, and here there is a spoiler alert, the glorious arrival in Italy is completely unrealistic. In the last ten years, approaching the coasts of Italy has become very difficult and dangerous since the Italian coast guard and Frontex are patrolling them to push back the migrant boats into Libyc (Libyan?) waters. Moreover, also, once those people get rescued by an NGO, most of the time they are not allowed to disembark at the closest harbours, but must keep on navigating to northern ports, despite the critical conditions of the passengers. To put it differently, what is extremely disturbing in Me Captain is that there is no institutional responsibility for the terrifying journey the two young men, as thousands of other migrants, have to face. The role of governments or political parties is neither represented nor addressed, although by forbidding free movement across borders they are the cause of human trafficking. Once again, the only cruel and bad guys are the Libyc (Libyan?) bandits, reinforcing the already strong Italian prejudice about black Muslim men, who are actually just profiting from the governmental agreement between Italy and Libya. The lack of realism in Me Captain is even more disarming when compared with Green Border (Zielona Granica) by Agnieszka Holland, the other movie in competition in Venice about a similar topic. Set on the border between Byelorussia and Poland, Green Border shows the inhuman treatment of the migrants traveling on the Balkan routes and explicitly exposes the responsibilities of the local media, police, and governments. Unsurprisingly, the Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, condemned the film ahead of its premiere and accused the director of Nazis propaganda.
Although at first glance, the great success of Me Captain seems unreconcilable with current Italian politics, it shouldn’t be forgotten that this huge production was financed by the Italian Ministry of Culture and presents a clean-washed image of the Italian government across the world. In the meantime, behind the scenes, Prime Minister Meloni and her cabinet are introducing drastic measures to affect migrants’ rights in Italy and across the Mediterranean Sea. No wonder then, that Me Captain not only won the Golden Lion, but has also recently been chosen to represent Italy at the Academy Awards.
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