Italy — which is the Country of Focus at this year’s European Film Market in Berlin — is flourishing in terms of production activity just as its box office grosses start to pick up. Yet there’s room for improvement in terms of the number of titles that are able to break out internationally.
The Cinema Italiano output currently stands at over 350 movies a year, including co-productions, which is up compared with pre-pandemic levels. Still, while exports are growing, Italy only has a handful of directors — such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher — whose movies consistently manage to travel around the world.
That said, a new generation of Italian auteurs is emerging. Case in point are the country’s two titles in the Berlin Film Festival competition: star-studded sci-fi film “Another End,” and musical comedy “Gloria!”
“Another End” is the sophomore work by Piero Messina, whose first film,...
The Cinema Italiano output currently stands at over 350 movies a year, including co-productions, which is up compared with pre-pandemic levels. Still, while exports are growing, Italy only has a handful of directors — such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher — whose movies consistently manage to travel around the world.
That said, a new generation of Italian auteurs is emerging. Case in point are the country’s two titles in the Berlin Film Festival competition: star-studded sci-fi film “Another End,” and musical comedy “Gloria!”
“Another End” is the sophomore work by Piero Messina, whose first film,...
- 2/17/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Given the challenges that many migrants face when traveling to a new land, it makes sense to assume that they’re fleeing harrowingly nightmarish realities. But the scenes that director Matteo Garrone uses to open his heartrending Io Capitano are far from nightmarish. Garrone’s big-dreaming migrant characters aren’t running away from something so much as they’re running toward it. The possibility that their goal is little more than a mirage makes this epic tale’s often horrendous journey even more wrenching.
The Dakar neighborhood where teenaged Seydou (Seydou Sarr) lives with his mother (Ndeye Khady Sy) and siblings is a chaotic sprawl of ramshackle buildings and bustling markets. A street party practically explodes as a spectacle of drumming, dancing, and colorful homemade couture. Though the Dakar of the film is clearly poor, with few modern conveniences and not much of a job market, it hardly seems the...
The Dakar neighborhood where teenaged Seydou (Seydou Sarr) lives with his mother (Ndeye Khady Sy) and siblings is a chaotic sprawl of ramshackle buildings and bustling markets. A street party practically explodes as a spectacle of drumming, dancing, and colorful homemade couture. Though the Dakar of the film is clearly poor, with few modern conveniences and not much of a job market, it hardly seems the...
- 2/11/2024
- by Chris Barsanti
- Slant Magazine
In Matteo Garron’s Academy Award-nominated Io Capitano, a sixteen-year-old Senegalese kid is asked to sail a boat full of passengers from Libya to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea. The boy, Seydou, is understandably scared and doesn’t want to take the responsibility, especially after what he has had to endure in life so far. You would think things are not going to go well for Seydou and his cousin Moussa, but the film pleasantly surprises you with its very uplifting climax, which essentially makes you realize that this story deserved an ending like that. Io Capitano translates to “I’m the Captain,” but before Seydou reaches that point, he goes through hell. We get to see a glimpse of Seydou and Moussa’s lives in Dakar, Senegal, which doesn’t look that hopeful.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Do Seydou And Moussa Want To Go To Europe?
For young teenagers like Seydou and Moussa,...
Spoilers Ahead
Why Do Seydou And Moussa Want To Go To Europe?
For young teenagers like Seydou and Moussa,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Rohitavra Majumdar
- Film Fugitives
Roberto Benigni, whose film “Life Is Beautiful” won three Oscars in 1999, has come out of the woodwork to support Matteo Garrone’s Golden Globe-nominated “Io Capitano,” which is Italy’s current Oscar candidate for best international feature film.
The revered yet reclusive Italian actor/director, whose most recent big screen role is playing Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s hit 2019 live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio,” is clearly a big fan of “Io Capitano” (the title translates to “Me Captain”). The movie narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe.
Garrone’s immigration drama realistically depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea. Variety critic Guy Lodge in his review called “Io Capitano” the director’s “most robust, purely satisfying filmmaking since Garrone’s international breakthrough with ‘Gomorrah’ 15 years ago.
The revered yet reclusive Italian actor/director, whose most recent big screen role is playing Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s hit 2019 live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio,” is clearly a big fan of “Io Capitano” (the title translates to “Me Captain”). The movie narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe.
Garrone’s immigration drama realistically depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea. Variety critic Guy Lodge in his review called “Io Capitano” the director’s “most robust, purely satisfying filmmaking since Garrone’s international breakthrough with ‘Gomorrah’ 15 years ago.
- 12/21/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
In the days following Donald Trump’s remarks that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” the 2024 GOP frontrunner was met with a wave of Democratic and media criticism, likening his speech to Nazi rhetoric. In response to the Adolf Hitler comparisons, Trump has privately vowed to further amp up the volume on his extreme, anti-immigrant messaging, according to two sources who’ve spoken to him since his rally in New Hampshire last weekend.
“He wants the media to choke on his words,” one of these sources says. “The...
“He wants the media to choke on his words,” one of these sources says. “The...
- 12/21/2023
- by Asawin Suebsaeng and Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. Cohen Media Group releases the film in theaters on Friday, February 23.
Like Africa’s “first” film “La Noir De…” (Aka “Black Girl”) (1966), “Io Capitano” begins in Dakar, Senegal. And just as in Ousmane Sembene’s masterpiece, the promise of Europe tempts a young protagonist away from its vibrant streets and warm community to be degraded, dehumanized, and abused. While “La Noir De…” saw a young woman arrive in Antibes, only to find life there a brutal and cruel nightmare that she cannot bear, “Io Capitano” follows 16-year-old Seydou and his cousin Moussa on a tortuous journey just to reach Italy’s shores.
From Italian director Matteo Garrone, best unknown for the unflinching Mafia thriller “Gomorrah,” which saw Naples become a hellish war zone, his latest is the first that sees Italy from an outsider’s perspective, gazing...
Like Africa’s “first” film “La Noir De…” (Aka “Black Girl”) (1966), “Io Capitano” begins in Dakar, Senegal. And just as in Ousmane Sembene’s masterpiece, the promise of Europe tempts a young protagonist away from its vibrant streets and warm community to be degraded, dehumanized, and abused. While “La Noir De…” saw a young woman arrive in Antibes, only to find life there a brutal and cruel nightmare that she cannot bear, “Io Capitano” follows 16-year-old Seydou and his cousin Moussa on a tortuous journey just to reach Italy’s shores.
From Italian director Matteo Garrone, best unknown for the unflinching Mafia thriller “Gomorrah,” which saw Naples become a hellish war zone, his latest is the first that sees Italy from an outsider’s perspective, gazing...
- 9/7/2023
- by Leila Latif
- Indiewire
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