ME CAPTAIN (IO CAPITANO) Luminaries

North American Premiere

Italy’s Oscar^® submission for Best International Feature

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Matteo Garrone, actors Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall, and script consultant Mamadou Kouassi, whose life experiences inspired the film.

Matteo Garrone made his name with the landmark Neapolitan crime film GOMORRAH, and has since demonstrated a penchant for gothic tales tinged with dark fantasy, including TALE OF TALES, DOGMAN and PINOCCHIO. With IO CAPITANO, Italy’s official selection for the Academy Award® Best International Film category, Garrone turns his attention back to real-life subject matter, where he finds a story of bravery and heroism in the face of harrowing danger that’s equal to any classical epic or enchanting fairy tale. Musician-turned-actor Seydou Sarr gives an impressive performance as Seydou, a Senegalese teenager who lives in an over-crowded house with his mother and younger sisters. Along with his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall), Seydou has been working odd jobs and saving money, preparing for a move to Italy, with dreams of pursuing a music career. Along the way, they will contend with shakedowns from corrupt border guards, mistreatment from human traffickers, a dangerous and deadly crossing of the Sahara Desert, and imprisonment, abuse and modern-day slavery in Libya, before undertaking the final and most challenging step in their epic journey: a dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea in a rusty, dangerously overcrowded boat, with Seydou forced to navigate and pilot the ship himself. –Todd Hitchcock