I figli della scimmia

Dario is the father of a child with a disability, to whom he devotes all his care and attention, and shares a close bond with his teenage nephew. As their relationship grows increasingly intense, he begins to see in the boy the son he had always wished for, assuming the role of the father he might have been. A tangle of projections and unspoken desires that will ultimately fracture Dario’s inner equilibrium and tear through the entire family.

The title is inspired by an Aesop fable about a monkey who has two young but loves and feeds only her favourite, neglecting the other. Here, however, the story is about a parent torn between two “children”: the real child and the ideal one. It is an intimate conflict that exposes the fragile balance between generosity and selfishness, love and desire, acceptance and regret. At its heart lies a taboo, an “unspeakable” truth about the deepest experience of parenthood: no parent wishes to have a child with a disability. This does not diminish the love parents feel for their children, but having a child with a disability can take one’s life in a direction for which no one can ever be fully prepared.
Speaking with some of them, I discovered that the pain of having a child born with a disability is often preceded by another kind of loss: the grief for “the other child,” the one imagined and awaited during pregnancy, whom they must say goodbye to before ever meeting them. And I began to wonder: what happens when that child suddenly appears? When a father finds himself face to face with the child he had always imagined and wanted?

PRODUCTION 1:
LUNGTA FILM SRL - Maurizio Piazza, Andrea Calbucci,
Via Francesco Ferrara 36
00191 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 3288398538
E-mail: lungtafilm@pec.it
Web: http://www.lungtafilm.com
Social Media: @lungtafilm - Instagram

PRODUCTION 2:
Lebowski Srl - Riccardo Scamarcio,
Vicolo Della Luce 1
00153 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 3395354621
E-mail: irene.lebowskisrl@gmail.com
Web: http://www.lebowskisrl.com
Social Media: @lebowski_srl – Instagram

PRODUCTION 3:
Mosaicon film - Andrea Leone,
Via Tommaso Caravita 25
80134 Napoli, Italy
Tel: +39 3402686812
E-mail: leone@mosaiconfilm.it
Web: http://www.mosaiconfilm.it
Social Media: @mosaiconfilm - Instagram

WORLD SALES:
Piper play - Catia Rossi
Via Sardegna 50
00187 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 3465125862
E-mail: c.rossi@piperplay.eu
Social Media: @piperfilm - Instagram

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION:
Medusa Film S.p.a – Tiziana Mazzola
Viale Aventino, 26
00153 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39.06.66390636
E-mail: tiziana.mazzola@mediaset.it
Web: www.medusa.it
Social media: @medusafilmofficial - Instagram

PRESS OFFICE:
Barbara Van Lombeek - THE PR FACTORY
Tel: +32 486 54 64 80
E-mail: barbara@theprfactory.com

Marie-France Dupagne - THE PR FACTORY
Tel: +32 477 62 67 70
E-mail: mariefrance@theprfactory.com

ITALIAN PRESS OFFICE:
Rosa Esposito
Tel: +39 3471254861
E-mail: rosa.esposito.press@gmail.com