Cert 15
February 13th 2025
Nominee – Oscar for Best International Feature Film, Academy Awards 2024
Nominee – Best Non-English Language Motion Picture, Golden Globes 2024
Winner – Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Star, Venice Film Festival 2023
Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo, Hichem Yaco
Country: Italy, Belgium, France. Wolof, French, Arabic, English (English subtitles) 121 mins
UK release date: April 2024
A Homeric fairytale told through the mind’s eye and experiences of Seydou and Moussa, two Senegalese teenagers living in Dakar who yearn for a brighter future in Europe. Yet between their dreams and reality lies a treacherous journey through a labyrinth of checkpoints, the scorched Saharan desert, a fetid North African prison and the vast waters of the Mediterranean where thousands have died packed inside vessels barely fit for passage.
“This is a film that, for all its brutal horrors, keeps a kernel of hope and faith in the inherent decency of humankind (or some of it at least).” Wendy Ide, The Observer
“The films of Italy’s Matteo Garrone always bloom at the meeting point of two different realisms: social and magic. They’re alive to the hardships of ordinary life, but also it’s comedy and strangeness…” Robbie Collins, Daily Telegraph
Film Club at the Roxy 