“It took me eight years before making I Captain, in tackling a topic like this. In reality I felt guilty in showing this story from my point of view as a white Western bourgeois, I was afraid of falling into the speculation of the poor migrant, speculate on who goes through this journey and dies. I always thought it was better for an African director to do it, then the years passed and I said to myself the important thing is to make the film, we will do it together.” Thus Matteo Garrone in an interview with ANSA reflects on Io Capitano, a film that won seven Nastri d’Argento 2024 awards: best film, direction, production (Archimede with Rai Cinema and many international partners), cinematography by Paolo Carnera , editing by Marco Spoletini, live sound by Maricetta Lombardo and the best casting director Francesco Vedovati.
“I thank all the journalists who voted for me. The awards help to give visibility. We are all very proud of the path this film has taken, of having reached the Oscar, the Golden Globe (the film then won seven Davids and in Venice the Silver Lion for Director, ed.) and also had a huge response from the public despite being released in the original language, it in fact reached 5 million euros. The objective – continues Garrone – was to humanize the numbers we are used to hear on TV. We knew that politics wouldn’t change, but we could surprise the viewer by telling them a part of the journey they didn’t know about.”
How much does politics weigh in the choice of your films? “In this case there is such a delicate, dramatic theme that inevitably implies a political interpretation. But generally what pushes me to make a film is to put man and his conflicts at the centre. Maybe Io Capitano is mine most popular film, or a hero’s journey which, unlike my other works, is without shadows A hero who fights for the right to travel, something that everyone should be able to do and for the right to life against the system death. And this in the face of a Europe that is increasingly becoming a fortress”. How did the film change you? “The reality I told is certainly softened compared to the true one. Some stories they told me were almost impossible to stage, they were of unbearable cruelty and thus risked seeming far-fetched. What has remained within me is certainly the great ability human and the courage of these people who fight for rights that should be taken for granted and always with a great vital energy. It was a journey that marked me more than others also because I entered a culture that was not mine, in one language that wasn’t mine.”
Does he still paint? “I stopped at 26, but cinema is an art form that also includes painting and so I don’t miss it because when I shoot a film the pictorial visual part remains central to the choice of a subject”. What’s in Garrone’s future? “I would love to be able to say that I have another project, but that’s not the case. Io Capitano is still taking me around the world and I still have to fall in love with a new story”. Finally, the Film Journalists also awarded the two protagonists of Io Capitano Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall with a special recognition.
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