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The new Oscar-nominated film _Io Capitano_ follows young Senegalese migrants on their journey from West Africa to Europe. “We wanted to … give visual form to a part of the journey that we don’t see,” says director Matteo Garrone. We are also joined by Mamadou Kouassi, whose journey from the Ivory Coast to Italy inspired the movie. Nearly 200,000 migrants traveled to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea last year. Thousands have died or gone missing during the perilous journey. “We wanted to try to humanize this number,” says Garrone. For migrants like Kouassi, who face increasingly xenophobic and racist anti-immigrant policies and sentiment in Europe, the film provides an “opportunity also to express ourselves” and to share “what African people are suffering before they arrive in Europe.” Kouassi served as a script consultant for the film.

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