04/09/2021 - VENICE 2021: Shot in a run-down and toxic version of Taranto, Alessandro Celli’s debut is a dystopic but fun film which light-heartedly reflects upon the present while warning us about the future

Dennis Protopapa and Giuliano Soprano in Mondocane

Two boys are fishing out a big wooden cross from the sea, but they don’t even know the Christ that’s nailed to it. In the background, tall, smoking chimneys contaminate the air. A sign on a fence reads “restricted zone”. We’re in Taranto, one of the biggest commercial ports in the Mediterranean, on a day like any other, in a near future where civilization has deteriorated to the point of losing its way. Dogworld [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Alessandro Celli’s first work, in competition in Venice’s International Film Critics’ Week – is a laudable Italian attempt to tell a global story in a counter-utopian reality, which is one third authorial work, two thirds action and light-hearted violence. The latter draw impetus from the vast universe ranging this way and that way across the ocean, from John Carpenter to Sergio Martino, from George Miller to Lord of the Flies and Waterworld, but also from countless graphic novels, shoot-‘em-up video games and various B movies from the 70s. The authorial third of the film reassures environmentalist causes concerned with the disastrous matter of the Ilva steel plants in Taranto, which have poisoned and killed hundreds of workers and townspeople over the past few decades and, more generally, with the planet’s threatened ecosystem. The film is produced by lovers of genre cinema, such as Matteo Rovere (the producer-director prodigy behind Italian Race [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matilda De Angelis
interview: Matteo Rovere
film profile] and Romulus & Remus – The First King [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and the showrunner, producer and director of the Sky Italia original series Romulus, who’s currently working on Delta [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], an arthouse film noir-western by Michele Vannucci) and Gianluca Curti, who grew up with the world of pop cinema.

Leading the cast are two little leaguers bursting with potential, Dennis Protopapa and Giuliano Soprano, who play thick-as-thieves friends Piero and Christian, nicknamed Dogworld and Bed-Wetter, who are accepted into the community of The Ants after demonstrating nerve and an uncanny command of weapons during a heist. The Ants are a gang of petty criminals without families who terrorise the city’s “wholesome” contingent, Taranto Nuova, and who withdraw to an unknown base which has long been sought out by an overzealous police officer (Barbara Ronchi). There’s no such thing as ownership in the Ants’ Nest; they share weapons and motorbikes, and they even have hallucinogenic toads to lick to while the evenings away. The undisputed leader of The Ants is Hothead, an anti-paternal figure who holds the power of life or death over these little urchins armed with machine guns. He’s played by guest star Alessandro Borghi, one of the best among the new generation of actors, who lavishes the kids with head ruffles but also ferocious punishments, as well as rolling his eyes to prove the real sociopathy at play. His plan is to amass enough cash to win back Taranto and make it a better place. Submission to Hothead will threaten the friendship and freedom of the two protagonists, who are joined by another promising future star of Italian film Ludovica Nasti. Italian-Canadian filmmaker Celli’s gratifying debut is an entertaining, dystopic work (the latter adjective only familiar to sci-fi fans until not so long ago) which looks to light-heartedly reflect upon the present while warning us about the future.

Dogworld is produced by Groenlandia and Minerva Pictures together with RAI Cinema. Minerva are handling international sales while 01 Distribution are releasing the film in Italian cinemas on 3 September in 200 copies.

(Translated from Italian)