There is a saying in Hollywood that filmmakers should never work with children or animals. Italian director Alessia Scarso breaks the rule in her feature debut, Italo.

Alessia Scarso’s Italo tells of a heartwarming friendship between a lonely boy and a stray dog set in the Sicilian town of Scicli.

The film is one of 78 films being showcased at the 16th annual Europe on Screen (EoS) film festival, taking place in six cities in Indonesia from April 24 until May 8.

“It is important for me and Sicily because it is an amazing and true story about this special dog that lived in Scicli some years ago,” Alessia, who spent her childhood on Sicily Island, said at the Instituto Italiano di Cultura Jakarta for the festival.

The film is inspired by a true story in Scicli, which applied zero-tolerance on stray dogs after a pack of stray dogs attacked a little boy to death in 2009.

When a honey colored mongrel, given the name Italo, wanders through the town, everybody wants to get rid of it.

The affectionate canine comes to all town events, from weddings to funerals, and accompanies students to school. Italo even saves a young girl from a thief. The dog eventually touches residents’ hearts and receives the title of honorary citizen.  

“After reading the news about Italo, I went back to Sicily to see the dog. It, indeed, went to funerals, Sunday Mass and school,” she said while holding a little Italo doll throughout the interview.

Alessia, who has established herself as editor and post-production coordinator, decided to adapt Italo’s story to the silver screen.

“I worked in movies for 15 years and for my first feature I wanted to make a love story. The movie, Italo, is not a typical love story as it centers on a dog. But, I feel Italo’s story is special.”

In the movie, Alessia created the character of Meno (Vincenzo Lauretta), a lonely and introverted 10-year-old boy who befriends a good natured stray dog by the name of Italo. This created a dilemma for Mano’s father, Mayor Antonio Blanco (Marco Bocci), who faces pressure from residents to ban stray dogs.

“Talking through child characters enables us to not only touch children but also the child in every one of us,” she said about the development of Meno’s character.

The movie features the best actors that Sicily offers, and the children — mostly first-time actors — were chosen from an audition participated by 3,000 children in the area.     

“The director, producer, screenwriter, director of photography, art director, editor, costume designer and makeup artist are all women.”

Having a female crew was not something she planned, Alessia noted.

“What’s important to me is that they are professional. I hope the system sees it this way. When you think in terms of women and men, you are discriminating.”   

The real Italo passed away in 2011 while Alessia was drafting the script. Playing Italo is Tomak, a trained Golden Retriever that shares similarities with the real Italo.

While relatively having no difficulties working with children, Alessi faced a challenge working with the dog during the six-week filming.

True story: A honey-colored dog, named Italo, wanders through the town which applied zero-tolerance on stray dogs in Alessia Scarso’s film, Italo. (Courtesy of Ara)

“We tried to find tricks to make the dog do what we wanted. In a scene where the dog is supposed to lick the boy’s ear, we wiped the boy’s ear with meat,” she said.

The crew placed sausage on the jacket of an actor so that the dog would chase and attack him.

Italo, in some ways, chronicles Alessi’s memory of her hometown. The film offers lovely scenery and the quirks of the small Sicilian town.

“The more I travel overseas the more I fall in love with Sicily because of the weather, the light, the food and the people.”

Her production team prepared the story board, but Alessia only used it on the first day of filming.

“At the end of the first day, I threw the story board in the trash bin. I have little experience so I feel that need to face this with improvisation. […] So you will not find sophisticated techniques in the movie. I convey it all in a simple manner.”

Since its premiere in 2014, the movie has been screened in festivals in Europe, the US and Asia.

“We haven’t received any awards yet, but a lot of children have sent messages to us, thanking us for making the film. With this, we can say that we won the biggest award.”

Born in 1979, Alessia fell in love with cinema at the age of 12 while watching the 1990 film Dances with Wolves, starring Kevin Costner.

“I went to the cinema for the first time with my school. I entered the cinema and looked at the big screen. The lights went off and something magical happened. In that moment, I decided that I wanted to have the power to talk to the audience through the screen. After 20 years, I finally was able to become a director.”  

She studied editing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and worked as an editor and post-production coordinator for numerous special reports, investigative documentaries and films.

Prior to Italo, she directed her first short romantic comedy film, Disinstallare un amore (Uninstalling Love), in 2011.

“What inspires me is reality. It may sound crazy, but oftentimes when I find something or someone interesting on the street, I will follow it and closely observe its behaviors.”

For her next project, Alessia plans to make a film that is different from Italo.

“I want to take a leap from children to elderly [characters] because they represent two moments in life that are very genuine,” she said.
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Italo will be screened on May 7 at Art Cinema, Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center, Jakarta; and on May 8 at Grand Aston Medan, North Sumatra.