The key points The story was inspired by three news events As a child, Luc Besson had a strong bond with a dog called Socrates The director worked with a group of 80 dogs
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Luc Besson returns to his origins with a film that recalls those that made him loved by the general public (Le grand bleu, Nikita and Leon) and gives his numerous fans Dogman in theaters from 12 October. The film focuses on the figure of a jocker-like vigilante, confined to a wheelchair by a crazy and violent father. The film, half thriller, half black fairy tale, also owes its beauty to the performance of Caleb Landry Jones, in the role of Douglas, a paraplegic outcast who lives in symbiosis with a pack of dogs, the only living beings with whom he found himself living, from when his father locked him as a boy in a cage with them.
Il Sole 24 Ore met Luc Besson after the film’s good reception by audiences and critics in Venice, where it entered competition without winning what would have been the well-deserved Volpi Cup for Landry Jones.
The film takes inspiration from current events.
«I mixed three different stories that actually happened that have to do with the forced relationship between a child and a group of animals. The beginning retraces an event that happened in France to a four-year-old boy, relegated by his family to live with pigs, until he was freed by the police. Then there were two other events that inspired me, involving a child living with a group of dogs in America and Romania. The latter concerned a six-year-old girl, who at the time of the discovery was walking on all fours and was only able to bark and howl. I saw a video in which after three years the same little girl had recovered her standing position and could speak. However, her physical reactions were still those of a baby animal: she panted like dogs did. When they asked her: “What do you want more than anything?”, she replied: “To see my parents because I understand that they are not dead”. I asked myself: how can one survive such an experience? I thought my childhood was difficult, but in the end I convinced myself that it wasn’t that difficult. What can one become after such an experience? Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a terrorist or a killer? When you look at the sky what can you ask: why me? Where did I go wrong? Where I have to go?”
Are you familiar with and close to animals?