Rarely has the immigrant experience been as harrowingly fictionalized on film as in Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano. There have been a number of films throughout history that depict a story of immigration – that unquantifiable desire to find a better life – but it’s perhaps just as important to show the incredibly difficult journey many immigrants embark on. In the case of Garrone’s film, which he directs and co-wrote with Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini, and Andrea Tagliaferri, it’s a journey across multiple countries, and its young protagonists are setting off on their own, multiplying the dangers.

Our hero is Seydou (Seydou Sarr), a Senegalese teenager who dreams of making it in Europe as a musician. He’s goaded into leaving Senegal by his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall), but they have to sneak out in secret without telling their parents. Seydou tries to test-drive the idea to his mother one night, but she quickly shoots him down. Turns out mother does know best, as it doesn’t take long for the boys’ trip to Italy to show signs of danger. It begins when they’re speeding in the bed of a crowded truck across the Sahara, and one man falls off. The driver never slows down, never stops.

The rest of Io Capitano is a kind of episodic series of events as Seydou and Moussa traverse the Sahara and Libya. At one point they’re separated after a band of warlords extort everyone in the group, and they find Moussa with something he shouldn’t have. Garrone does not shy away from the suffering and misery that Seydou experiences, but by the end of the film, it’s hard not to feel like Io Capitano is dabbling in misery porn. Do you want to watch some of the worst impulses of humanity on display, all seen through the eyes of a sixteen year old, with a dim light at the end of the tunnel? Lawrence of Arabia, this is not.

Thankfully Seydou Sarr anchors the film as a likeable protagonist, giving a virtuoso performance beyond his years – all the more impressive considering that Io Capitano is his first role. He fits naturally as a wide-eyed teenager who simply wants the best for everyone making the journey with him, regardless of how much it puts himself in danger.

There are some bright spots to be found. Garrone throws in a few well-executed surreal touches occasionally to show Seydou’s tenuous grip on reality, as those around him begin to die and as he drifts further and further from his mother. One of the film’s “episodes” shows a fellow traveler named Martin (Issaka Sawadogo) enlist Seydou to help with construction for a wealthy man in order to be freed from a Libyan prison.

A smartly understated but noticeable piece of craftmanship comes from Stefano Ciammitti’s costuming. Nearly all of Seydou, Moussa, and all the other immigrants’ apparel comes from international soccer jerseys, suggesting that no matter how remotely we are scattered across the world, there will always be something to connect us. And in a film like Io Capitano where the predominant emotion is often an overwhelming loneliness in the vast expanse of the world, it’s nice to be reminded that there’s always a place we can belong to.

Io Capitano will release in select cities on February 23 and expand nationwide shortly thereafter.

OSCAR POTENTIAL:

• Io Capitano is a nominee for Best International Feature, where it is not likely to win.