When a Story of Migration Is Not Simply Fiction

The 2 youngsters on the display trudging via the limitless dunes of the Sahara on their method to Europe had been actors. So had been the guy migrants tortured in a bloodstained Libyan jail.

However to the younger man watching the film one current night in a suburb of Dakar, Senegal’s capital, the cinematic ordeal felt all too actual. His two brothers had undertaken the identical journey years in the past.

“That is why they refused to ship me cash to take that route,” stated Ahmadou Diallo, 18, a road cleaner. “As a result of they’d seen firsthand how harmful it’s.”

Critics within the West have praised the movie “Io Capitano” — nominated for the 2024 Academy Award for greatest worldwide characteristic movie — noting its visceral but tender have a look at migration to Europe from Africa. It’s now exhibiting in African nations, and is hitting near house in Senegal. That’s the place the 2 predominant characters within the film embark on an odyssey that epitomizes the goals and hardships of numerous extra hoping to make it overseas.

Final month, the movie’s crew and its director, Matteo Garrone, took “Io Capitano” to a dozen locations in Senegal the place migration isn’t fiction. They screened it in youth facilities, in faculties, even on a basketball courtroom turned out of doors movie show in Guédiawaye, a suburb of Dakar, the place Mr. Diallo and tons of of others watched it at sundown on a giant display.

“Io Capitano” tells the story of Seydou and Moussa, two endearing cousins who depart Dakar after months of planning, spending the entire financial savings they earned via straining work on a building web site.

However what begins as an thrilling highway journey shortly turns into a dangerous expedition because the youngsters discover themselves within the palms of careless smugglers, then below the management of armed robbers and merciless jailers, earlier than they attain the deadliest step of their travels, the crossing of the Mediterranean.

Seydou, the lead character, finally ends up captaining the ship taking them and tons of of different migrants to Italy. The film by no means reveals them reaching the shore, however when a helicopter from the Italian coast guard hovers over the boat, the viewer is tempted to imagine that they are going to be rescued and that a part of their troubles are over.

On the basketball courtroom, some gasped in horror when bandits opened hearth on a gaggle of migrants on the display. Others hid their eyes with their head scarves throughout scenes of torture.

“Folks know there’s a danger to lose their lives” in searching for emigrate to Europe, Mr. Garrone stated. “However they haven’t seen what it’s like.”

Senegal’s youth make up the vast majority of its 17 million folks, however its fast-growing economic system has struggled to supply them jobs with respectable pay. 1000’s depart yearly via the Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean, and lethal accidents are frequent. More and more, those that can afford it fly to Central America, hoping to achieve the USA that manner.

Senegal’s new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has promised to enhance the economic system by financing small companies and strengthening traineeships in farming, fishing and industrial jobs. Pure fuel and oil reserves are anticipated to show the tiny coastal nation right into a hydrocarbon energy in Africa.

However in Guédiawaye, the place newly constructed homes sit on sandy streets subsequent to crumbling shelters stuffed with flies and no entry to working water, many younger males stated they weren’t anticipating main modifications.

Mr. Diallo, the road cleaner, stated he needed to hitch his brothers in Paris. He confirmed movies on his telephone of himself and dozens of others within the Atlantic final summer time, throughout one in every of his two earlier — and unsuccessful — makes an attempt to achieve Europe.

Just a few toes away, Barra Gassama, 18, watched “Io Capitano” with typically teary eyes. A decade in the past, he stated, he picked up the telephone at house to listen to from a stranger that his older brother had died on his method to Spain. “That decision modified our lives,” he stated in a whisper. “This jogs my memory a lot of him,” he added, staring on the display.

Regardless of his brother’s loss of life, Mr. Gassama’s mom later inspired him to attempt to depart, too. However he stated he had as a substitute chosen to attempt to make it at house, working onerous as a baker, incomes as much as $6 a day, six days every week.

Within the film, Seydou and Moussa depart Dakar with out telling their households. However a few of these watching the movie stated they had been having open conversations with their family about migration.

Pape Alioune Ngom, 18, a welder, stated just a few hours earlier than the screening that he was attempting to influence his dad and mom to let him go to Europe. He swore that he wouldn’t depart with out their blessing. “What’s there for us right here?” he requested. “All of us have migration in thoughts.”

Research have proven that individuals aspiring emigrate typically ignore warnings in regards to the risks of attempting to enter nations illegally. However Mr. Garrone, the director, stated the film wasn’t supposed to influence folks to not undertake the journey.

“I’m principally hoping to assist younger folks in Senegal notice that when they’ve left their house, they develop into a part of a system that they will’t actually get out of,” he stated.

To depict the system of smugglers and exploitation, Mr. Garrone labored with Mamadou Kouassi, a social employee now working with migrants in Italy, who spent three and a half years attempting to achieve Europe from his native Ivory Coast. Mr. Kouassi’s experiences impressed most of Seydou’s and Moussa’s story line within the film.

Mr. Kouassi additionally attended the screening, the place he stared on the spectators who had been laughing on the two younger heroes attempting to cover money inside their our bodies earlier than starting their trek via the Sahara.

“They don’t know how Europe and Italy are treating us on the opposite aspect,” Mr. Kouassi stated.

The primary tragedy within the film adopted shortly after, when a migrant fell off a pickup truck and the motive force stored racing within the desert, to the horror of the opposite passengers grabbing onto picket sticks to keep away from assembly the identical destiny.

The viewers fell silent.

Seydou Sarr, 19, and Moustapha Fall, 20, the 2 actors who play the cousins within the film, have been touring movie festivals within the West, sporting designer garments on the Oscars and chilling in luxurious accommodations throughout Europe, a world away from the lives in Senegal they themselves left just a few years in the past. Their journey was a bit of completely different; they had been forged within the movie in Dakar, and later moved to Italy, the place Mr. Garrone lives.

Mr. Sarr, who gained the perfect younger actor award on the Venice Movie Competition, stated he needed to proceed appearing.

For now, they each dwell in Rome with Mr. Garrone’s mom, and Mr. Garrone stated he apprehensive about them. “They stand up at 3 p.m., and my mom does the cooking and all the things for them,” he stated. “They’re children.”

After the screening, Ndeye Khady Sy, the actress starring as Seydou’s mom, urged the viewers to remain in Senegal. “You’ll be able to succeed right here,” she stated.

However Mr. Ngom, the welder, had left the basketball grounds.

So had Mr. Diallo, the road cleaner, who stated he would strive reaching Europe for the third time this summer time.