"Io Capitano" received standing ovations and a 12-minute round of applause at the Venice Festival. It's the new movie of film Director Matteo Garrone which is competing at the Venice Festival and that could be the Italian candidate for the Oscars. The movie discusses an extremely current topic.

The film is shot in local languages and features two young Senegalese protagonists, Seydou and Moussa (Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall). These two minors leave Dakar and their families behind in the hope of a new life on the old continent.

Two youngsters searching for a better future

The two youths are not fleeing from the civil war that is ravaging their country, and which Garrone never shows. They are simply two youngsters like many others who want to see the world and become famous rappers: "White people will come and ask us for our autographs," says at a certain point Seydou to Moussa. This is their dream, but once they reach Libya, the real war begins.

In the meantime, there is the unforgiving desert, where Seydou and Moussa are reduced to two people who have paid for a ticket on a truck that does not turn back if someone falls off during the journey.

Then comes the horror of Libyan detention centers, including torture, and they are received by screaming voice yelling "You are in Libya; either you have money, or you go to prison."

All of this happens until Seydou reaches the sea. At this point, he is asked by the Libyan smugglers to be the captain of one of the many dinghies toward Europe. He says he does not even know how to swim, and in the next scene, he is seen on a boat crammed with migrants as he proudly says that he is the captain of that boat of desperate souls.

The inspiration for the movie came from activist Kouassi Pli Adama Mamadou, who made a significant contribution to the film's script. During a press conference at Venezia80, he recounted the hardships of the journey when faced with desperation, saying, "You no longer have alternatives, and you are willing to embark on a journey not knowing if you will survive."

Those who do survive and arrive in Italy then "Begin the difficult and tortuous path to obtain the residency permit in order to have a dignified life," he said.

Mamadou's commitment was born out of his own suffering. He is now fully integrated, living in Caserta with his partner, raising two children, and actively engaged as a cultural mediator at a social center and within the movement for migrants and refugees. He fights for the rights of the most vulnerable and combats labor exploitation.

'Unjust difference between young Europeans and young Africans'

Speaking to ANSA, Garrone said the movie is "(a) contemporary odyssey in which two young boys are the symbol of a globalized generation, part of a migration that is not only the one fleeing wars and climate disasters."

"Seventy percent of Africans are youth and they have the legitimate wish to improve their lives and to be free to travel. It is a question of justice: Why should their European peers be allowed to go on holiday to Senegal by plane while they on the other hand must undertake a journey of hope without knowing if they will arrive alive," he added.

Garrone intentionally chose Senegal as the backdrop and cast two protagonists from poor backgrounds with dreams of improving their lives in Europe, working, sending money home, and pursuing careers as soccer players and rappers.

The film was shot in Casablanca, Dakar, and the waters off the coasts of Marsala.

Garrone highlighted his point of view, to "(v)iew Europe from the other side, the African side" and to shed light on "A world of people with their dreams, wishes, people and not numbers such as the figures of the dead on the Mediterranean route, to which we have all grown accustomed to."