Attenti al gorilla

Directed by Director's notes
  • Luca Miniero
Directed by
  • Luca Miniero
Year
  • 2019
Length
  • 90 min.
Year
  • 2019
Length
  • 90 min.
Cast
  • Frank Matano
  • Cristiana Capotondi
  • Lillo Petrolo
  • Francesco Scianna
  • Diana Del Bufalo
  • Massimo Di Lorenzo
  • Ernesto Mahieux
Synopsis

How would you feel if you suddenly found yourself sharing your house with the most intelligent of animals, a gorilla? It’s something Lorenzo {Frank Matano} knows only too well: an unsuccessful lawyer who, in order to recover the respect of his family and his wife’s love, decides to sue the city zoo. He wins his case, of course, but is forced to bring the primate home with him. And, you better believe it, living with Lorenzo isn’t easy…
Frank Matano, Cristiana Capotondi, Lillo Petrolo, Francesco Scianna, Diana Del Bufalo and two identical twins in an outrageous hilarious look on the craziest family in the world, seen through the eyes of one tough, wise and witty dude: our gorilla.
And don’t call him an animal, because he’ll take offence!

Director's notes
  • The story is based on a recent American court sentence that recognized great apes the status of “non-human persons”. The adaptation of this affair to the Italian reality becomes a comedy. Because when Lorenzo {Matano}, a lawyer who has broken up with his wife {Capotondi} and is in difficulty with his children, has a masterstroke and wins a case against the local zoo, instead of fame and honors is forced to take the gorilla back home with him. Poor Italy.
    His bourgeois life is literally destroyed by the animal. Lorenzo is forced to accommodate a jungle in his house, and in his heart too.
    But the gorilla teaches him the art of nurturing, thanks to which he gradually wins back first his children and then his wife. And Lorenzo finds the will to love again.
    A story about the instincts families often hush up, which hilariously lets us into the original thoughts of a gorilla who looks at humans with the conviction that Darwin got it all terribly wrong: it’s not man who descended from apes, but apes who descended from man.
    The directing style tells the story as if it were authentic: a realism mixed with oneiric flavors. Also because believing in the thoughts of a gorilla, with the voice of Claudio Bisio, is easy when you turn off the lights and turn on the big screen.

    Luca Miniero
Directed by
  • LUCA MINIERO
Story and screenplay
  • GIULIA GIANNI, LUCA MINIERO, GINA NERI
Produced by
  • MARIO GIANANI and LORENZO MIELI with LORENZO GANGAROSSA
A production
  • WILDSIDE and WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT ITALIA
Executive producer
  • OLIVIA SLEITER
Editing
  • PIETRO MORANA
Scenography
  • MONICA VITTUCCI
Director of photography
  • FEDERICO ANGELUCCI
Costumes
  • ELEONORA RELLA
Original score
  • PASQUALE CATALANO
Sound engineer
  • FABIO FELICI
Casting
  • MARIA TERESA MONACO
Product Placement
  • RDS edited by Tilt of Silene Mosticchio
  • NOBERASCO edited by QMI
  • ARMANDO
Distributed by
  • WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Director's notes
X

The story is based on a recent American court sentence that recognized great apes the status of “non-human persons”. The adaptation of this affair to the Italian reality becomes a comedy. Because when Lorenzo {Matano}, a lawyer who has broken up with his wife {Capotondi} and is in difficulty with his children, has a masterstroke and wins a case against the local zoo, instead of fame and honors is forced to take the gorilla back home with him. Poor Italy.
His bourgeois life is literally destroyed by the animal. Lorenzo is forced to accommodate a jungle in his house, and in his heart too.
But the gorilla teaches him the art of nurturing, thanks to which he gradually wins back first his children and then his wife. And Lorenzo finds the will to love again.
A story about the instincts families often hush up, which hilariously lets us into the original thoughts of a gorilla who looks at humans with the conviction that Darwin got it all terribly wrong: it’s not man who descended from apes, but apes who descended from man.
The directing style tells the story as if it were authentic: a realism mixed with oneiric flavors. Also because believing in the thoughts of a gorilla, with the voice of Claudio Bisio, is easy when you turn off the lights and turn on the big screen.

Luca Miniero