I Captain: Who is the hero of this “powerful”, “epic” and “moving” odyssey?

What is it about? Seydoux and Moussa, two 16-year-old Senegalese, decide to leave their native land and join Europe. But the dreams and hopes of a better life on their way quickly destroy the dangers of this journey. Their only weapon in this odyssey will remain their humanity.

Revelation

In order to find an interpreter for Seydoux, Matteo Garrone conducted a long casting of non-professional actors. That’s how he met Seydoux Sarri. The director loved her spontaneity, naturalness and calmness: “I saw that he could bring a great intensity to the character, something very human and deep and soulful.”

“I emphasize this word because Seydoux has given it a dimension that deals with faith and innocence, and this is the greatest strength of the film. This allows the audience to empathize with the character and live with it. The strength of cinema is to convey emotions so that the audience can identify with the hero.The director recalls.

At first, this 18-year-old Senegalese, who dreamed of becoming a football player, did not imagine a career on stage or in front of the camera. However, her mother, who is a drama teacher, took her interest in acting when Seydoux heard that an Italian director was looking for actors for his new film, Moi Capitaine, so she auditioned.

It’s a beautiful twist of fate, because the young actor, thanks to his authentic performance in this intense odyssey, won the Marcello Mastroianni prize for best newcomer at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. Matteo Garrone, on the other hand, received the Silver Lion as the best. Film director.

The birth of the project

According to Matteo Garrone, I’m the Captain, like Pinocchio (the director’s previous film), has elements that borrow heavily from the origin story: “There are many things in common with Pinocchio. I realized this closeness during the filming of the film. The character is moved by cricket from home, he secretly leaves home and family and goes out into the world to meet violence. .”

“There’s also a very realistic, almost documentary approach that we took Gomorrah. What drove me to make this film was to capture a part of the journey in pictures that we don’t usually see. Generally, we see a boat arriving on the coast of Italy. Before, we don’t know everything that is happening. I wanted to start from their point of view so that the audience can experience this story with them.”he explains.

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A few origin stories

I am the captain is not taken from a specific real story, but was born from the weaving of several stories of young people who experienced the crossing from Africa to Europe. Listening to them, Matteo Garrone realized that their stories undoubtedly constituted the only possible modern epic narrative: “Before making this film, I knew, through the prism of the media, the adventure and cruelty experienced by migrants during their long journey.”

“However, these images were almost exclusively of the last leg of the journey: overturned boats on the open sea, floating bodies, desperate migrants pleading for help, the usual tally of the dead and the living. Unfortunately, I was used to just seeing. numbers not people”The director of Gomorrah recalls.

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Maximum authenticity

During a visit to a juvenile detention center in Catania, Italy, Matteo Garrone heard the story of a young African who, at the age of fifteen, brought a boat to the coast of Italy, saving the lives of all its passengers. The filmmaker explains: “I wanted to shoot in the radical opposite direction of the medium. To share these people’s perspective and point of view on this epic journey that is made of life and death. I could understand this complete adventure from the inside. The danger, I needed to immerse myself in their world, so far from mine.”

“For this, I had to have a constant collaborative relationship with all these young people, girls and boys, who experienced horror and who accompanied me in the making of the film. But it’s theirs. The main thing was to be able to count them both in front of the camera and behind it, to be as authentic as possible, away from any didacticism, like an intelligent messenger.”

Shooting in Africa

Matteo Garone was not under any pressure while filming in Africa, and the main difficulty was making a film about a culture that is not his own: “It was the only way out with them, with people from this world. We had to see them, listen to them, talk to them, and above all, we had to build a relationship of mutual trust.”

“Another difficulty was directing actors with whom we don’t speak the same language. I had to learn how accurate their interpretation was. There are also very difficult, dangerous action sequences, which is an added difficulty that is also very useful. When filming”he recalls.