THE BOY IN THE BOAT

Matteo Garrone turns to a teen from Senegal for the ultimate hero origin story.

- LEILA LATIF

Gommorah and Pinocchio director Matteo Garrone’s films were previously confined to Italy’s shores, but in his latest, Io Capitano, Sicily is the light at the end of a dark and dangerous tunnel. Teenager Seydou (Seydou Sarr) makes the journey there from Dakar, but faces torture, starvation, and enslavement before he even reaches the sea crossing. It’s a tough but radically beautiful watch, filled with magic, agony and triumph. But sadly, as director Garrone tells Teasers, ‘the reality is even worse. Sometimes, it’s difficult to recreate things that are so violent they can look unbelievable. So this is an invocation of that violence rather than a representation.’