Garrone doesn’t spare you much, but if the movie never turns into an exercise in art-house sadism, it’s because his focus remains unwaveringly fixed on his characters who, from the start, are fully rounded people, not props, symbols or object lessons.

Manohla Dargis

The New York Times

The late film critic Roger Ebert called movies an “empathy machine,” and “Io Capitano” stands as Garrone’s plea for empathy in a debate that sorely lacks it.

G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

The film builds on a docudrama realism while also reaching toward the mythological.

Chris Barsanti

Slant Magazine