From the first cat in San Salvatore to the last image with the car of two vets in the countryside (chasing dreams, campers and other animals) it is a crescendo of emotions. Seventy-six minutes in which the ability and sensitivity of the director Guido Votano manage to tell all the professionalism and love that can be felt daily at the Due Mari veterinary clinic in Oristano.
"That crazy job - to quote Monica Pais - that allows you to get closer to the true meaning of life". It gets to the heart of "Altri animali", the film produced by Altri occhi by Cristiano Bortone, which at its premiere on Friday evening at the Ariston cinema in Oristano gave emotions to over 400 spectators.
<p>Full house at the Ariston cinema (photo V. Pinna)</p>The film shines a spotlight on a world where skills and an infinite dose of passion have been intertwined for over twenty years. Monica Pais and Paolo Briguglio, a couple in life since university and managers of the veterinary clinic in Oristano, together with the staff are the protagonists of the film alongside all the animals that arrive at the clinics every day.
The eyes of the stray cats, absolute masters of San Salvatore, the attempts of capture by a volunteer (to then get to sterilization) immediately capture the attention. And the images flow in a compelling sequence that goes from the fractured dogs and cats, to the rabbit Milo to Maia and her newborn kittens. The stories of the animals with their owners intersect with the lives of the no-one's animals that, after arriving at the clinic, are colored with all that care and attention that until that moment had been missing.
Votano's camera, discreet and punctual, for five months followed step by step the thousand daily adventures that are experienced in the Oristano clinic, a cutting-edge facility on the whole Island. A routine that is always different because it goes from sterilizations to CAT scans to delicate surgical operations. But the film also tells the story of the activity outside the clinic: the assistance to a stranded dolphin, to a sick sheep to the turtles. And also the beautiful birds of prey, the flamingos and even the wild boars.
<p>Monica Pais, Paolo Briguglio and the director Guido Votano (photo V. Pinna)</p>An essential story, in which the animals' point of view always remains central: they arrive scared and bruised, sometimes distrustful and aggressive but through a magical alchemy in the end they always trust those humans . Finding total, professional and human assistance. "Animals bring us back to our most intimate being - says Paolo Briguglio - when a dog gets angry or is happy it is the same as us when we feel those feelings". And the beauty of the film is precisely here, in reminding us how in the eyes of a dog, cat or horse we can find our most intimate self. A film that makes us make peace with ourselves.
Tomorrow it will be screened in Cagliari, on November 27th in Torralba, on the 29th in Iglesias, on December 5th in Nuoro, on the 10th in Sassari, finally on the 18th and 19th in Tortolì. From January in all Italian theaters.
