Filming has kicked off in Turin on the feature film I figli della scimmia, directed by Tommaso Landucci (Caveman – The Hidden Giant, selected in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori line-up) who also penned the movie’s screenplay alongside Damiano Femfert. The film will be shot over five weeks in various city centre locations.

I figli della scimmia tells the story of Dario, who has a son with a disability whom he cares for in every possible way. However, the bond he shares with his brother’s teenage son becomes increasingly far-reaching, turning into a space for the projection of desires and missed opportunities. The resulting fragile balance soon jeopardises the entire family.

The cast stars Riccardo Scamarcio (nominated four times for a David di Donatello award and recently seen in Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia and Close to Me), Fausto Russo Alesi (David-nominated for Exterior Night and recently gracing Duse), Lidiya Liberman (Maternal, Blood of My Blood), Andrea Aggio, Tancredi Naldini, Cristina Odasso and Luigi Diberti (recently seen in Storia di una notte).

The film is being produced by Lungta Film, Mosaicon Film and Lebowski, in collaboration with RAI Cinema. The project is made with support from the Film and Audiovisual Investment Development Fund, the “Piemonte Film TV Fund” call for applications held within the FESR Piemonte 2021-2027 framework, and the Film Commission Torino Piemonte.

The winner of the 2021 Franco Solinas Prize for Best Screenplay, I figli della scimmia has enjoyed a complex international development journey: it was selected in the Alpi Film Lab organised by the Italian National Film Museum’s TorinoFilmLab, and it also took part in MIA’s Co-Production & Pitching Forum in 2023. The project then went on to scoop the Grand Prize in the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film Lab that same year.