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The talented Italian director Enzo D’Alò is best known for his beautifully crafted 2D animated features Pinocchio (2012), Lucky and Zorba (1998) and Pipi, Pipu & Rosemary (2009). This year, he returns to the big screen with a charming adaptation Roddy Doyle’s novel A Greyhound of a Girl. Based on Doyle’s well-received 2011 novel, the film centers on an 11-year-old Dublin girl who shares a pivotal car journey with her mother and her ailing grandmother.
The film’s powerhouse Irish voice cast includes Oscar nominee Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin), Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters, Catastrophe), Rosaleen Linehan (The Matchmaker) and Charlene McKenna (Peaky Blinders), with young newcomer Mia O’Connor as Mary. The film’s script was written by Dave Ingham (Charlie and Lola, The Koala Brothers) and D’Alò.
“The main theme of the book is delicate and difficult to describe, as it deals with loss,” says D’Alò. “At first, the idea of tackling the notion of loss bewildered me a little. But then the strength of the main characters allowed me to carry on with this beautiful family story, where four generations of women entertain a dialog between past and present, and the personality of each of them acquires more value and weight as the deep bond that unites them unravels,” he adds.
D’Alò points out that the story of his new movie is for everyone. “I didn’t approach it in terms of a fairy tale, for I wanted to depict the ‘circle of life’ with sincerity, which is a crucial moment of passage and growth that everyone experiences. The idea of loss belongs to all of us, because each of us can identify in one of the age ranges of the main characters, who love each other and clash with each other — with Roddy Doyle’s great irony — in a generational conflict in which all viewers will be able to recognize themselves as well.”
The director was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about his new movie during a recent Zoom interview:
Animation Magazine: First of all, congratulations on the recent success of the movie at the Berlin International Film Festival. Can you tell us how you got involved with this fascinating project?
Enzo D’Alò: It is surprising, but I had never been to Ireland, before beginning work on this movie. We did three months of research on the locations. You really have to research the environment, the houses, the parks, the world, the rainbows everywhere. Everything in the movie depicts the country as it really is. Roddy Doyle wrote this autobiographical story, so it was important for me to keep the real background of the movie. When you read a book, you are the director. You can imagine the faces, the music, the backgrounds. So, the work of the director is to offer a passage to that world so the audience can feel the same emotions. I had a wonderful time in Ireland, being with the Irish people and experiencing this amazing country.
A friend of mine gave me Roddy Doyle’s book about 10 years ago and told me to read it because it would make a great animated movie. Then, I convinced my producer to buy the rights, and we met Roddy and I proposed the project to him. We then started to work on the script, and we gave the first version to Peter de Sève (Ratatouille; Monsters, Inc.; Tarzan; Ice Age) to work on designing the characters. Of course, it’s a long process. We have some dream sequences in this movie — there’s Emer’s dreams, directed by Marco Zanoni, which feature Peter’s drawings. We also have some sequences about the nightmares of one of the characters (Mary), which are made by Regina Pessoa (Uncle Thomas, Accounting for the Days; Tragic Story with Happy Ending). It was very interesting to introduce these two different styles in the movie.
When we started the production of the movie, the pandemic also began, which made it harder to work. We wanted to have two or three big studios with animators working inside, but that became impossible. Each animator started to work from home, so we quickly learned to communicate online and very closely. We had animators in Italy, Ireland, Germany and England working on it. Altogether, I believe we had around 250 people working on it. We mainly used Toon Boom to produce the animation.
Your film had a great reception when it premiered at the Berlinale in February.
Yes, it was quite wonderful. Everybody was very touched and it was quite rewarding for us because everyone who worked on the movie formed a strong bond over the past few years. It was the first time the film had been screened in public. And one of the great things about the Berlin festival is that a general audience attends the movies. We had a big audience made up of regular families. We had a wonderful Q&A, and I felt that the movie had touched many in the audience. Many adults and especially children expressed their joy in following the events in the lives of this Irish family. I found that very moving.
How would you define the message of your movie?
As in the Roddy Doyle book, the movie follows the relationship between a young girl, her mother and her grandmother. It chronicles their lives, during happy times as well as dark times. You know the grandmother is close to the young girl, she’s almost like a sister to her, while her mother feels more responsibility towards her and is worried about her future. Her grandmother encourages the young girl to follow her dreams of becoming a great chef, but her mother wants her to study hard at school. They find a way to form a better connection and to adapt their positions. I wanted to emphasize how important it is to have these relationships with our families and to be able to connect and see other generation’s perspectives in our modern world.
The world of animation has changed a lot over the past 20 years. What is your take on the state of animation in 2023?
I loved so much what Guillermo del Toro said during the Oscars, when he pointed out again that animation is not a genre, and that animation is cinema. Sadly, I think in Italy and many countries in Europe, people still consider animation as something that is only made for children. One thing we all know is that children are not stupid. You have to speak to them just like you’re speaking to adults. Some of the most interesting feedback I get is from children. They are more honest and straightforward.
Sometimes parents take their children to see animated movies in theaters and they are surprised by how easily animation allows them to be transported to these other worlds. Maybe they go in thinking, oh, I’m doing this for the children, but then they find out that the movie speaks to them as well. I remember that was the case with my 1998 movie Lucky and Zorba. When you see drawings come to life on the big screen, it gives you an easier point of access than live action. You can tell wonderful stories with powerful messages and a mix of humor, poetry and dramatic elements. All thanks to the power of animation.
A Greyhound of a Girl is produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions, Aliante, Jam Media, Rija Films, Amrion Production and Fish Blowing Bubbles, with the support of Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages, the Italian Culture Ministry, Screen Ireland, the Estonian Film Institute, the Campania Region and the Tuscany Film Commission. GFM Animation is handling international sales.
