The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily

In a remote cave, a travelling storyteller recounts a fascinating tale to his young assistant. Tonio, the Bear King’s son, is kidnapped by hunters in the Sicilian mountains. When the harsh winter threatens his people with famine, King Léonce decides to invade the land where the men live. With the help of his army and a wizard, he succeeds and finally finds Tonio. But he soon discovers that bears are not meant to live in the land of men. A beautifully animated fairytale that will captivate people of all ages.

‘This story is a tale for children written in 1945 by Dino Buzzati, and you can definitely feel it’s about war and dictatorship. He started it for Corriere dei Piccoli, which released it one chapter at a time, like a soap opera. At one point, he created a city that was censored because it looked too much like Berlin and they asked him to change it. It wasn’t even called “The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily” but “The famous invasion”, then it became “The famous invasion of the Maremma”, which is a region a bit like the Camargue in France. One or two years later, he decided to write a book for his niece. He used the entire narrative, rewrote it and added the whole second part. It does, of course, raise a lot of questions. Do the bears symbolize the communists? The Russians? I don’t know. I don’t think one should get too attached to that. When I read the story, I didn’t notice all those allusions.’

Director, Lorenzo Mattotti