Cinema: Our dream as emigrants
"I, Captain" is the extremely dramatic odyssey of two dreamy brothers who embark on the adventure of illegal immigration.
While cousins Seydou and Moussa aspired to leave Senegal and find success with their music in Europe (“the white people will ask us for autographs”), I couldn't help but think of Claudinho and Buchecha in Our dreamBut the saga of I, Captain (I CaptainThe film, nominated for an Oscar for Best International Feature Film, soon takes a very different turn. Going against the advice of their elders and trusting the word of a charlatan healer, the boys risk everything in the classic adventure of illegal immigration.
Director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Reality, The Tale of Tales, Pinocchio, DogmanThe writer and his team of ten co-writers – including immigrants who shared their experiences – crafted an extremely dramatic odyssey through Niger, the Sahara Desert, Libya, and the Mediterranean. Sixteen-year-old Seydou embarks on a hero's journey punctuated by detentions, separation, violent extortion, torture, and forced labor. His inability to prevent the death of a woman during the grueling desert crossing compels him to make a commitment to himself to save not only himself, but also his wounded cousin and everyone else within his reach.
Thus, the fragile and dependent boy of before becomes an almost larger-than-life figure. Seydou's saga (Seydou Sarr, excellent) takes on the character of a fable, despite all the brutal realism with which the journey is staged. In the most difficult moments, his dreams and reveries take the form of magical vignettes. Or, in reality, the villains of the immigrant trafficking are counterbalanced by guardian angels who allow him to move forward.
The accumulation of extremely dramatic situations brings the film dangerously close to exploiting the plight of African migrants. Or to a cautionary fiction: don't come because you might die on the way. The journey concludes not with a full stop, but with a question mark on the edge of solid ground. What will the awakening from this nightmare ultimately be like?
>> I, Captain It's in theaters.
The trailer:
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.