Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s buzzy Venice title Io Capitano is to be distributed in the UK and Ireland by Altitude, released in cinemas from March 8 2024.
The drama has joined the Oscars race as Italy’s official submission for the international film prize, and has already won the Silver Lion for best director and the best young actor prize for Seydou Sarr at Venice, as well as picking up the best European film prize at San Sebastian.
It is nominated for best European film prize at the upcoming European Film Awards, and Garrone is in the running for the European film director accolade.
Pathé will release the film in France in January 2024 and is handling world sales via its Pathé International arm. It was released in Italy on September 7 via 01 Distribution.
Io Capitano is told in Wolof and French, and follows the adventurous journey of two young men who leave Dakar, Senegal, to make their way to Europe, billed as a “contemporary Odyssey through the dangers and beauty of the desert, the shock of the detention centres in Libya and the perils of the sea”.
Sarr stars alongside fellow newcomer Moustapha Fall in the Italy-Belgium co-production from Archimede with Rai Cinema, Tarantula, Pathé, Logical Content Ventures and the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Canal+ and Ciné+, RTBF (Belgian Television), Voo-Be TV and Proximus.
Filmmaker Garrone, whose credits include Dogman and Gomorrah, said: “We all have an innate human desire to experience new people and places, find new opportunities and earn money for our families – through social media and the internet, young people worldwide have a window on the world which is full of promise. The difference between African and Western citizens is that they risk their lives whilst we can book a holiday and visit for a couple of weeks – it’s a cruel system of injustice.
“To make the film, we started from the true testimonies of migrants living in Italy who had set out on this journey themselves, unaware of what incredible challenges they would have to overcome to reach European shores. Along with the wider film-making team and cinematographer Paolo Carnera, we wanted to look beyond the usual images of migrants in boats we see in the media, using the camera to tell the story of the contemporary odyssey of these young heroes.”
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