The film tackles the life journey of Toni Ligabue, visionary naïf painter who used to draw tigers, lions and jaguars while living among the poplar trees of the boundless Po valley. A harsh life that is a fairy tale too, as a lonely and marginalized kid finds redemption in his art, and a way to express himself and be admired by the world.
Acting
Elio Germano's physical performance is almost non-verbal, all sinew and survival.
Cinematography
The Po valley becomes a character — oppressive, endless, strangely holy.
Practical Effects
Ligabue's actual paintings recreated with obsessive, trembling authenticity.
Director
Giorgio Diritti
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ligabue was a real 'naïf' painter whose work now sells for millions, though he died in a psychiatric hospital in 1965. The film deliberately avoids romanticizing this trajectory.
Elio Germano spent months learning to paint left-handed and contorting his body to match Ligabue's actual posture in photographs. The physical toll reportedly required physiotherapy throughout shooting.
IT
