A film about marginalised people that you should watch


Last week I wasn't raving about Anora, a film from a director who likes to highlight the lives of marginalised groups.  This week, here's an example of a film about marginalised people that really, really impressed me.

Matteo Garrone's Io Capitano is a story about two teenage migrants from Senegal, Seydou and Moussa, who try to travel to Europe in search of a better life. What could have been a very preachy and relentlessly grim experience is turned by Garrone into a classic adventure story, set against the terrifying beauty of the Sahara desert.

It has a hero in Seydou, a teenage wannabe pop star who travels illegally with his cousin Moussa across the Sahara. Seydou is one of the most likeable characters you will meet in modern cinema, played with great skill and tremedous empathy by Seydou Sarr, in his first professional acting role. The equally inexperienced but still very talented Moustapha Fall plays his cousin, with a supporting cast of African talent including Issaka Sawagdogo, another enslaved captive who befriends Seydou.

Through some of the worst trials that can happen to anyone, which include torture, slavery and wrongful arrest at the hands of the corrupt Libyan police, Seydou never loses hope or abandons his friend, even when they are separated.

This all sounds quite grim, but the more harrowing scenes are balanced by some creative use of magical realism, beautiful scenery, a musical number from the boys themselves and even black comedy, in the shape of a fake passport officer who you really don't want to hear shouting "NEXT!"

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