Other Animals
In Oristano, Monica Pais, Paolo Briguglio and a team of tough and passionate young vets treat all: domestic and wild animals, with or without owners, in the clinic and under Sardinian skies. Animals are the link with our origins, they are not ‘other’ than us – say Monica and Paolo, a couple in life and work since their university days, with new projects always in the pipeline.
Run-down strays and inappetent roosters, infected lambs and fractured birds of prey, old horses to support and wounded tortoises to mend. Then examinations, vaccinations, sterilisations: the documentary follows a rhythm that is never routine, because there is always an emergency, a new arrival, the emergency room is always open, and Sardinia, a wild land even when it is domestic, shows us at every moment how delicate
the balance between us and other animals is.
Curious but discreet, always present, the camera follows the clinic’s operators and guests for months, recounting a booming profession: in Italy there are now 65 million registered ‘pets’, more than humans, who are having fewer and fewer children. And it is precisely Oristano that has the lowest birth rate in Italy: The couples without children and with only the pet who come to the clinic, – observes Paolo – are an impressive number.
Monica, as a surgeon, tries not only to ‘fix’ strays that have been victims of accidents or aggression, but also, she says – to turn their misfortune into the very reason why they will perhaps be adopted. Paolo remembers the beginnings, thirty years ago, with just his hands and a microscope. Today he uses hi-tech diagnostics, but every now and then he returns to the countryside to help the farmers. Altri Animali is a dive behind the scenes of a special job: the dream of the many children who say when I grow up I will be a vet. It is a documentary that recounts, live and without filters, an incredible profession that allows us, – says Paolo – to get very close to the true meaning of life.
Director: Guido Votano
Editor: Marco Rovetto
Photography: Guido Votano, Thierry Winn
Sound: Claudio Chiossi, Fabio Pagotto
Music: Fiore Benigni, Luigi Polsini
Production: Altri Occhi srl
Original title: Altri Animali
Original version: Italian
Year of production: 2024
Lenght: 75′
